Safestat (Motor Carrier Safety Status Measurement System) is an attempt to develop an "automated, data driven analysis system". The concept of Safestat is to take currently available inputs and produce a numerical output of a motor carrier's RELATIVE safety performance (motor carriers are scaled compared to other motor carriers and not a fixed scale). By design it is flexible in that it allows for the addition of new inputs as they are developed and recognizes that not every carrier will have valid data in every category.

Currently 5 data sources are used in determining the Safestat value. They are:

1) State-Reported Commercial Vehicle Crash Data (from SAFER)

2) Compliance Reviews

3) Closed Enforcement Case Data (enforcement cases arise from major violations discovered during a compliance review)

4) Roadside Inspections (From SAFER)

5) Motor Carrier Census Data. This data is not used as a measure of safety but is used for identification and normalization (scaling) only (ie. the number of vehicles reported on the MSC 150 form is used as an indicator of the size of a carrier to scale the roadside inspection and crash data). Note that this presents a major problem to Safestat since this scaling information is often out of date or incomplete.

Data from these data sources is used in 4 "Safety Evaluation Areas" (SEA). They are:

1) Accident

2) Driver

3) Vehicle

4) Safety Management

For each of the 4 SEA's, values ranging from 0-100 are determined for all carriers with sufficient safety data related to that SEA. The higher the number the WORSE a carrier in that SEA. For example a carrier with a 90 in an SEA is worse than 90% of all carriers with sufficient data in that SEA.

A Safestat score is assigned only to carriers with a value of 75 or above in 2 or more SEA's. Some SEA are given more weight than others in calculating the Safestat score. The accident SEA is given double weight and the driver SEA is given 1.5 weight. The other SEAs are given single weight.

If a carrier is given a Safestat score it will also be assigned a category. This category is essential in understanding the relative deficiency of a carrier.

Category A

SEA value of 75 or greater in all 4 SEAs OR SEA value of 75 or greater in 3 SEAs and a Weighted Score of over 350. (Possible Safestat range of 350 to 550)

Category B

SEA value of 75 or greater in 3 SEAs OR SEA value of 75 or greater in 2 SEAs and a Weighted Score of over 225. (Possible Safestat range of 225 to 349)

Category C

SEA value of 75 or greater in 2 SEAs. (Possible Safestat range of 150 to 224)

Carriers with valid data in 1 or more SEAs that are deficient (value of 75 or over) in only 1 SEA are not assigned a Safestat score but are assigned a category as follows:

Category D

Deficient in Accident SEA

Category E

Deficient in Driver SEA

Category F

Deficient in Vehicle SEA

Category G

Deficient in Safety Management SEA