ISS-2: The Integration of the Motor Carrier Safety Status Measurement System (SAFESTAT) into the Roadside Inspection Selection System (ISS)

The original roadside Inspection Selection System (ISS) was developed in response to a 1995 Congressional mandate. This mandate called for the use of prior carrier safety data to guide the selection of commercial vehicles and drivers for roadside inspections. As the ISS has undergone development, another project also has been evolving. This project involves the creation of a Performance and Registration Information Systems Management (PRISM) program. An objective of PRISM is to identify relatively unsafe carriers, through an assignment of a Safety Status Measurement System (SafeStat) score, and encourage them to improve their safety performance or risk having their registration privileges revoked. While SafeStat was designed to prioritize carriers for monitoring and compliance reviews, the ISS was designed to prioritize carriers for roadside inspection. However, both algorithms use similar data to define a relatively “unsafe” carrier. It would be beneficial if there could be one uniform motor carrier rating system in place for all of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s programs. This paper briefly describes the two algorithms, discusses the integration of the SafeStat algorithm into the ISS, and presents conclusions of the initial testing of the resulting system, ISS-2. An analysis of more than 213,000 roadside inspections reveals that ISS-2 is just as effective as the original ISS in meeting the goals it was designed for. It successfully identifies, and prioritizes for roadside inspection, vehicles and drivers of carriers with poor prior safety performance, as well as those with few or no previous inspections. In addition, safety inspectors testing the system are pleased with the new algorithm and the new features present in ISS-2.