During the 1980s, Congress passed a series of legislative acts intended to strengthen motor carrier safety regulations. These measures led to the implementation of safety-oriented programs at both the Federal and State levels. The Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 established the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP), a grants-in-aid program to States for conducting roadside inspection and traffic enforcement programs aimed at commercial motor vehicles (CMVs). The Motor Carrier Safety Act of 1984 directed the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to establish safety fitness standards for carriers. The USDOT, in conjunction with the States, implemented MCSAP to fund the roadside inspection and traffic enforcement programs, the safety fitness determination process, and a commercial motor carrier rating system based on onsite safety audits called compliance reviews (CRs). The Safety Program Effectiveness Measurement Project was established to identify major functions and operations (programs) associated with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA’s) mission and to develop results-oriented performance measures for the Agency’s functions and operations as called for in the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA). From 2002 through 2009, the benefits of CR activities were assessed using the Compliance Review Effectiveness Model (CREM). 1 In 2010, following an Operational Model Test in select states, FMCSA began a phased implementation of Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA), a redesign of the preceding enforcement model. The CSA enforcement model includes an array of carrier intervention types replacing the current one-size-fits-all CR intervention type implemented as part of the old enforcement model. It is expected that a major benefit of the new enforcement model will be an improved level of safety in the operation of CMVs. The introduction of the new enforcement model in 2010 has necessitated a new approach for measuring the benefits and effectiveness of the interventions at a national level and on an ongoing basis. The Carrier Intervention Effectiveness Model (CIEM) provides FMCSA with a tool for measuring the safety benefits of carrier interventions. During the phased implementation of CSA, the model incorporates both CRs, previously measured by the CREM, and additional interventions, including: warning letters, offsite investigations, onsite focused investigations, and onsite comprehensive investigations. This approach yields national-level measurements of the effectiveness of FMCSA’s carrier interventions. While the new model succeeds the CREM, results from the two models are not directly comparable because the models require different methodologies to assess the different safety programs. However, both models measure the benefits of the programs in terms of crashes avoided, lives saved, and injuries prevented. An objective of this project is to develop and continue to improve the new model and to update the results on an annual basis. This report presents the results of the CIEM’s implementation for carriers receiving interventions in fiscal years (FYs) 2009, 2010, and 2011, and describes the functionality of the model and how it is applied. Technical details will be presented in a forthcoming report entitled “Carrier Intervention Effectiveness Model Technical Report.” (Author/publisher)
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