The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has released a mobile phone app that will let motorists, freight forwarders and insurers check the safety records of commercial carriers. In the past, it was much more difficult for motorists to check information on commercial carriers, and only law enforcement had access to the software used in the new app.

According to the FMCSA, the QCMobile app uses data from a number of sources and then summarizes the results. Data collected for the app will include information from the commercial carriers’ seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASIC). BASIC information includes categories such as unsafe driving, hours of service compliance, driver fitness, alcohol and substance abuse screening and vehicle maintenance.

Members of the American Trucking Association have argued that BASIC scores are designed to better target unsafe commercial carriers, and that the scoring system is not precise for responsible trucking companies. However, fatigued or reckless commercial drivers still cause truck accidents every year.

Can Transparency Help Reduce Truck Accidents?

By improving transparency, motorists and other organizations will have a useful tool for identifying commercial carriers with a history of safety violations. Causes of truck accidents include fatigued and impaired driving, poor maintenance, driver error and reckless driving – all of which are covered under the BASIC scoring system used by the QCMobile app.

To learn more about how Metier Law Firm can help truck accident survivors, please visit our YouTube page. For regular updates on Metier Law Firm and what we are doing to help accident survivors and their families, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Metier Law Firm – Injury Attorneys Serving Clients Nationwide