These guiding principles outline the vision of CVSA regarding the Level VIII Electronic Inspection and will provide a reference to common goals of CVSA, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and participating stakeholders. The principles will guide decision-making to ensure Level VIII Electronic Inspection development and implementation meet the purpose and objectives as outlined in CVSA’s Operational Policy 5. The guiding principles will be reviewed and updated periodically to ensure they remain in alignment with project development.
Guiding Principles
- Ensure all stakeholders (CVSA, FMCSA, law enforcement jurisdictions, technology providers, motor carriers and commercial motor vehicle drivers, etc.) understand the purpose and desired outcomes of the Level VIII Electronic Inspection operational test.
- Facilitate law enforcement’s ability to identify and address non-compliant motor carriers and commercial motor vehicle drivers at a higher risk for being involved in crashes.
- Provide industry stakeholders with the opportunity to provide input regarding the Level VIII Electronic Inspection concept.
- FMCSA will collect motor carrier data to evaluate the feasibility of using it to identify potential areas of non-compliance with regulations and share that data with motor carriers and enforcement personnel so they may take action to minimize safety risks.
- Minimize or eliminate additional investment/costs imposed on all stakeholders, clearly articulating the costs and benefits of any proposed solution(s).
- Costs include managing, accessing and understanding data and technology.
- Leverage technology and solutions that are in use today.
- Provide incentives consistent with other levels of inspection, such as Compliance Safety Accountability impact, that may encourage the motor carrier industry investment in and enhance safety and compliance. The incentive includes the opportunity to improve motor carrier data and receive real-time inspection reporting.
- If out-of-service conditions can be accurately identified electronically, the driver and/or commercial motor vehicle should not continue operating until the defect/violation is corrected.
- Motor carrier participation in the Level VIII Electronic Inspection operational test is voluntary.
- Data considerations include:
- Maintain privacy and integrity of the data.
- Maximize data security and protect industry-proprietary data. (Industry and government have a shared responsibility).
- Data should be utilized by law enforcement and/or regulatory entities, exclusively for the intended purpose of completing inspections and to further commercial motor vehicle safety and compliance.
- Operational test data shall be evaluated to determine safety benefits of the program.
- Data should enhance the ability to identify high-risk carriers, particularly with respect to including inspections with no violations.
- CVSA and FMCSA’s evaluation of the technical feasibility of Level VIII inspections should be technology neutral. Data collected as part of the operational test should be used to develop minimum functional and performance requirements and let technology providers innovate to develop solutions and technology to evolve as advancements are made.
- Proposed Level VIII Electronic Inspection solution(s) should first be tested, and a thorough evaluation be conducted prior to implementation.
- Level VIII Electronic Inspections recorded in the FMCSA systems need to be standardized and applied uniformly across the motor carrier industry and law enforcement jurisdictions, consistent with other levels of inspection.
- Any implementation should include a randomized approach by jurisdictions in selecting and activating Level VIII Electronic Inspection sites to allow for fixed and mobile inspection locations providing a consistent application across the industry, recognizing that the definition of mobile inspection locations may evolve over time.
- Jurisdictions should limit inspection sites to a reasonable number that effectively improves safety and optimizes their use of resources.
- During the operational test, FMCSA and the enforcement jurisdictions should share data to assist participating motor carriers and their service providers in benchmarking performance.