There is nothing basic about BASIC

If you do not know about the CSA 2010 BASIC’s by now, we will provide a quick overview.

The Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories is what are called BASICs. Drivers’ BASICs scores reflect their safety behavior. Information for BASICs scores come from roadside inspections, so whether the result is a clean inspection, a citation, or a warning for a violation, all information gathered during the roadside inspection affects your score as well as your carrier’s score.

The BASICs include:

• Unsafe driving such as careless or dangerous operation
• Fatigued driving such as Hours of Service violations
• Driver fitness such as training, experience, or medical qualification
• Controlled substances and alcohol such as DUI, illegal drugs and misuse of prescription drugs,
• Vehicle maintenance such as improper or inadequate maintenance
• Loading/Cargo Securement such as shifting or spilled cargo, unsafe handling of hazmat, or oversize/overweight violations, and
• Crash/Incident Experience such as patterns of crash involvement

For any big truck driver that believes this is no big issue, it is estimated that 100,000 to 200,000 current drivers will be out of the CDL driver pool as early as 2011.