Last week, the FMCSA announced a new training tools for carriers. The materials have been designed to “assist carriers in identifying and addressing their safety and compliance issues.”
Included in the resource materials is the Safety Management Cycle (SMC). The FMCSA says the SMC is an “important tool” that investigators use during on-site inspections and investigations. SMC is is designed to identify safety problems and their root cause, and point to solutions.
Additionally, the materials include information on how to use SMC and its six Safety Management Process, along with a fact sheet that details how to use the materials and provides case studies.
The FMCSA is releasing eight additional SMC aids which the agency originally created for enforcement personnel. “There is one job aid for each Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC). The Vehicle Maintenance BASIC has two SMCs: ‘inspection-Repair-Maintenance’ and ‘Cargo-Related,’ the FMCSA said in a statement.
According to the SMC resource:
The SMC is used to systematically assess SMPs in six areas: 1. Policies and Procedures, 2. Roles and Responsibilities, 3. Qualification and Hiring, 4. Training and Communication, 5. Monitoring and Tracking, and 6. Meaningful Action. By periodically reviewing each process, there is an opportunity to identify and correct breakdowns in SMPs before safety and compliance issues are identified or crashes occur. The SMC can also be used after safety and compliance issues or crashes have taken place to assist in determining which SMPs need attention.
Check out these new SMC resources on our CSA web site’s Resources page.