CSA 2010 And Safety Ratings For Individual Drivers

One of the FAQs at the FMSCA's website is:

"5. Will CSA 2010 assign safety ratings to individual CMV drivers? I heard that CSA 2010 is designed to rate CMV drivers and to put many of them out of work this summer."

The answer is:

"No. Under CSA 2010, individual CMV drivers will not be assigned safety ratings or Safety Fitness Determinations (SFDs)... CSA 2010 will provide enhanced tools for Safety Investigators (SIs) to identify drivers with safety performance problems during motor carrier investigations...." (I added the emplasis)

(As I read and understand more about CSA 2010, it's becoming clear to me that AMX simply didn't want to hire me back. It wasn't that Whatagreatguy couldn't, and that stings a little....) Anyway, under this scenario, I presume the driver's information would only be pulled up during an audit/investigation of the company. In fact, questions #11 and #12 address this:

11. What are the intervention thresholds for drivers?

FMCSA does not address drivers the same way it addresses carriers today, nor will it under CSA 2010. While carriers are prioritized for intervention based on the Safety Measurement System (SMS), drivers are only investigated during a carrier investigation. Therefore, no Intervention Thresholds are in place for drivers.

12. How does the process of investigating drivers work?

In the Operational Model Test (Op-Model Test), Safety Investigators (SIs) look at driver history when investigating a carrier; specifically, they are looking for egregious [outstandingly bad; flagrant] violations of FMCSA’s safety regulations by drivers. These violations are sometimes referred to as Red Flag Violations.

But get this: according to #15, "Carriers ... are not informed about driver interventions. Drivers will be notified by mail and may be contacted by a FMCSA investigator." Surely this doesn't mean that a "Driver Intervention" is kept a secret from the company the driver works for! But the important thing to note is that now, drivers can be contacted by the federal government directly. I don't think this is fair. Are 4wheeler drivers contacted directly be the feds?

Again, this information comes from http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov/FAQs.aspx?role=LS - part of the FMCSA's website, and if you're interesed, you should read it for yourself. I will make further posts as I learn and understand more about CSA 2010.