11/27/2013
Yesterday, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced its long-awaited proposed process for the treatment of adjudicated (e.g., dismissed) citations in the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS). Data from the MCMIS is reflected in drivers’ Pre-employment Screening Program (PSP) reports and is used to develop motor carriers’ CSA Safety Measurement System (SMS) scores. This process will hopefully provide more uniformity, since state DataQ analysts were previously instructed by FMCSA to use their own discretion in deciding which adjudicated citations to remove from carriers’ MCMIS records.
This new proposed procedure will allow motor carriers to file a Request for Review (RDR) in the DataQ system when a citation is adjudicated in court. State and Federal systems will be modified to reflect (upon a Data Q challenge) citations that were: 1) dismissed or resulting in a not guilty finding; 2) resulting in a conviction of a different or lesser charge; or 3) resulted in the conviction of the original charge. Motor carriers who file RDRs on adjudicated citations and provide proper documentation will have their MCMIS records amended. Those adjudicated citations that result in a not guilty verdict or dismissed charge will be removed from both the SMS and PSP. Those that result in the conviction of a different charge will be retained with the initial violation noted but will be flagged as “resulted in a conviction of a different charge.” In these cases, the SMS severity weight will be set to the lowest value in that BASIC (generally 1 point). Citations resulting in the payment of a fine or court cost, even if dismissed, will continue to be recorded as a conviction.
An advance notice of the forthcoming Federal Register Notice can be found here.
For more information please contact Jennifer Mason, jmason@robertsperryman.com