Brake OOS violation added to SMS methodology

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said that as part of its ongoing effort to update the Safety Measurement System (SMS) to identify large truck and bus companies with the highest safety risk and prioritize them for an intervention it has added a brakes out-of-service (OOS) violation to the methodology. The brakes OOS violation relates directly to underlying brake violations that are already used in the SMS, FMCSA said.

The new violation was added to SMS on April 1, but it has not been implemented retroactively; violations cited before April 1 will not be used. The change will be reflected in carriers' Vehicle Maintenance Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) beginning with the early May release.