Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Education and Outreach Programs Target Safety and Consumer Issues, but Gaps in Planning and Evaluation Remain Gao ID: GAO-06-103 December 19, 2005The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is responsible for improving commercial vehicle safety and uses education and outreach as part of its efforts. The House report accompanying the fiscal year 2005 Department of Transportation (DOT) appropriations bill asked GAO to report on FMCSA's education and outreach programs to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. GAO (1) describes FMCSA's education and outreach programs and how they relate to FMCSA's goals (2) identifies the extent to which FMCSA has evaluated its education and outreach programs and (3) describes the extent to which FMCSA's education and outreach programs are effective.
FMCSA's education and outreach programs--New Entrant, Non-Entrant, Motor Coach, Safety Belt, and Household Goods' target different audiences, including the motor carrier industry, commercial vehicle drivers, and the public.Total funding for these programs in fiscal year 2005 was $36.3 million; the largest share (about $33 million) went to the New Entrant program, which is designed to inform newly registered motor carriers (new entrants) about motor carrier safety standards and regulations to help them gain compliance with FMCSA requirements. FMCSA uses many approaches, such as direct contact with carriers, media campaigns, distributing printed materials, and establishing Web sites to provide information to target audiences. FMCSA has not described how its education and outreach program activities link expected changes in attitudes and behavior to broader goals, such as DOT's strategic objective of reducing transportation-related fatalities. FMCSA officials state that the education and outreach activities and programs link to agency goals at a high level, but this was not evident from our review, with the exception of the Safety Belt program. FMCSA has used a logic model as a tool in other programs to show the relationship between program activities and broader goals. FMCSA has begun some evaluations of its education and outreach programs, and plans other evaluations of these programs. However, although FMCSA's New Entrant program has existed for over 2 years, FMCSA has no plans to evaluate its New Entrant program until 2008. Thus FMCSA has no information on whether information on its safety requirements, provided through the Education and Technical Assistance package or during New Entrant safety audits--targeted toward truckers newly entering the industry--effectively communicate information to new entrants. This lack of evaluation makes it difficult to determine the impact the education portion of the New Entrant program has on commercial motor vehicle safety. Since FMCSA currently has little information on how its programs have affected attitudes and behavior, it is difficult to determine the effectiveness of FMCSA's effort. However, the designs of two programs appear to follow theories and research regarding media campaigns, which are intended to influence decision making about safety. Research and behavior theory suggest that for some types of programs--such as DOT's Click It or Ticket program, which is designed to increase safety-belt use by passenger car drivers--enforcement linked to education can improve results, and FMCSA has indicated it is linking some education and outreach programs to enforcement efforts, where appropriate. Finally, motor carrier association officials whom we spoke with stated that, in their view, FMCSA is doing some positive things in its education and outreach activities. A public safety group stated that FMCSA followed reasonable approaches in starting its education and outreach efforts; however, they would like to see more information on program effectiveness to help FMCSA refine the programs.
RecommendationsOur recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director: Team: Phone:GAO-06-103, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: Education and Outreach Programs Target Safety and Consumer Issues, but Gaps in Planning and Evaluation Remain
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Report to Congressional Committees:
December 2005:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration:
Education and Outreach Programs Target Safety and Consumer Issues, but
Gaps in Planning and Evaluation Remain:
[Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-103]:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-06-103, a report to congressional committees.
Why GAO Did This Study:
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is responsible
for improving commercial vehicle safety and uses education and outreach
as part of its efforts. The House report accompanying the fiscal year
2005 Department of Transportation (DOT) appropriations bill asked GAO
to report on FMCSA‘s education and outreach programs to the House and
Senate Committees on Appropriations. GAO (1) describes FMCSA‘s
education and outreach programs and how they relate to FMCSA‘s goals
(2) identifies the extent to which FMCSA has evaluated its education
and outreach programs and (3) describes the extent to which FMCSA‘s
education and outreach programs are effective.
What GAO Found:
FMCSA‘s education and outreach programs”New Entrant, Non-Entrant, Motor
Coach, Safety Belt, and Household Goods” target different audiences,
including the motor carrier industry, commercial vehicle drivers, and
the public. Total funding for these programs in fiscal year 2005 was
$36.3 million; the largest share (about $33 million) went to the New
Entrant program, which is designed to inform newly registered motor
carriers (new entrants) about motor carrier safety standards and
regulations to help them gain compliance with FMCSA requirements. FMCSA
uses many approaches, such as direct contact with carriers, media
campaigns, distributing printed materials, and establishing Web sites
to provide information to target audiences. FMCSA has not described how
its education and outreach program activities link expected changes in
attitudes and behavior to broader goals, such as DOT‘s strategic
objective of reducing transportation-related fatalities. FMCSA
officials state that the education and outreach activities and programs
link to agency goals at a high level, but this was not evident from our
review, with the exception of the Safety Belt program. FMCSA has used a
logic model as a tool in other programs to show the relationship
between program activities and broader goals.
FMCSA has begun some evaluations of its education and outreach
programs, and plans other evaluations of these programs. However,
although FMCSA‘s New Entrant program has existed for over 2 years,
FMCSA has no plans to evaluate its New Entrant program until 2008. Thus
FMCSA has no information on whether information on its safety
requirements, provided through the Education and Technical Assistance
package or during New Entrant safety audits”targeted toward truckers
newly entering the industry”effectively communicate information to new
entrants. This lack of evaluation makes it difficult to determine the
impact the education portion of the New Entrant program has on
commercial motor vehicle safety.
Since FMCSA currently has little information on how its programs have
affected attitudes and behavior, it is difficult to determine the
effectiveness of FMCSA‘s effort. However, the designs of two programs
appear to follow theories and research regarding media campaigns, which
are intended to influence decision making about safety. Research and
behavior theory suggest that for some types of programs”such as DOT‘s
Click It or Ticket program, which is designed to increase safety-belt
use by passenger car drivers”enforcement linked to education can
improve results, and FMCSA has indicated it is linking some education
and outreach programs to enforcement efforts, where appropriate.
Finally, motor carrier association officials whom we spoke with stated
that, in their view, FMCSA is doing some positive things in its
education and outreach activities. A public safety group stated that
FMCSA followed reasonable approaches in starting its education and
outreach efforts; however, they would like to see more information on
program effectiveness to help FMCSA refine the programs.
What GAO Recommends:
GAO recommends that the Secretary of Transportation direct the FMCSA
Administrator to describe the link between education and outreach
programs and agency strategic objectives and evaluate the extent to
which educational information and safety audits are helping new
carriers learn FMCSA requirements. GAO provided a draft of this report
to DOT for its review and comment. FMCSA officials commented on the
link between its education and outreach programs and its overall goals.
Based on FMCSA‘s comments, GAO acknowledged FMCSA‘s comments and
clarified the recommendations.
To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact Katherine Siggerud at
(202) 512-2834 or at siggerudk@gao.gov.
[End of Section]
Contents:
Letter:
Results in Brief:
Background:
FMCSA Has Established Several Education and Outreach Efforts but Needs
Specific Links to Goals:
Evaluations of Specific Education and Outreach Programs Impacts Are
Still in Preliminary Stages, but the Lack of a Plan to Evaluate How New
Entrant Safety Audits Improve Knowledge and Attitudes Raises Concern:
The Effectiveness of Education and Outreach Programs Is Unclear, but
Programs Seem to be Reasonably Designed According to Theories of
Behavior Change and Industry Groups:
Conclusions:
Recommendations for Executive Action:
Agency Comments:
Appendixes:
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology:
Appendix II: FMCSA Education and Outreach Programs:
Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments:
Tables:
Table 1: Overview of FMCSA Education and Outreach Programs:
Table 2: How Fiscal Year 2005 Outreach and Education Funding Is Being
Used:
Table 3: Hierarchy of Objective, Goal, and Indicators for FMCSA's
Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Objective:
Figures:
Figure 1: Cover of Safety Belt Partnership Brochure:
Figure 2: FMCSA Fiscal Year 2005 Education and Outreach Funding:
Figure 3: Program Logic Model:
Figure 4: FMCSA's Evaluations and Planned Evaluations by Program:
Figure 5: Number of New Entrant Safety Audits Completed by FMCSA and
State Agencies (first 7 months of fiscal year 2005):
Abbreviations:
CVSA: Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance:
DOT: Department of Transportation:
FMCSA: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration:
GPRA: Government Performance and Results Act:
GSA: General Services Administration:
MCMIS: Motor Carrier Management Information System:
NHTSA: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
OMB: Office of Management and Budget:
SAFETEA-LU: Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation
Equity Act: A Legacy for Users:
TAG: Technical Assistance Group A Legacy for Users:
TAG: Technical Assistance Group:
Letter:
December 19, 2005:
The Honorable Joe Knollenberg:
Chairman:
The Honorable John W. Olver:
Ranking Minority Member:
Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing, and Urban
Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent
Agencies:
Committee on Appropriations:
House of Representatives:
The Honorable Christopher S. Bond:
Chairman:
The Honorable Patty Murray:
Ranking Minority Member:
Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, Housing and
Urban Development, and Related Agencies:
Committee on Appropriations:
United States Senate:
In 2003, large trucks represented 3 percent of registered vehicles in
the country, but nearly 12 percent of the people killed in motor
vehicle accidents died in crashes involving large trucks. The Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), within the Department of
Transportation (DOT), is responsible for improving the safety of
commercial vehicle operations--which includes interstate truck and
motor coach (bus) companies--and has set a safety goal to reduce
fatalities from an estimated 2.81 per 100 million truck vehicle miles
traveled in 1996 to no more than 1.65 per 100 million truck vehicle
miles traveled by the end of 2008. Among the ways that FMCSA attempts
to achieve this and other goals is through education and outreach
activities.[Footnote 1] For example, the agency provides information to
consumers about motor coach safety records and what to consider when
hiring a moving company. It also provides new motor carriers with
information on safety requirements and conducts safety audits to review
motor carrier compliance with these requirements. In some cases,
education and outreach efforts regarding safety audits may be
reinforced when followed-up with enforcement.
In recent years, we have raised concerns about FMCSA education and
outreach efforts. In 2003, for example, we reported that FMCSA's "Share
the Road Safely" program lacked a clear program strategy and included
activities that were only tenuously linked to program goals, and we
reported that FMCSA had not recently evaluated the program's
effectiveness.[Footnote 2] In addition, our 2001 report on oversight of
the household goods moving industry noted that DOT and FMCSA had made
limited efforts to provide consumer education that would enable the
public to be more informed about hiring a mover.[Footnote 3]
Furthermore, the Congress has expressed concern about how FMCSA's
education and outreach programs are meeting broader goals. In the
conference report accompanying the DOT appropriations bill for fiscal
year 2005, FMCSA was asked to report by April 2005 to the House and
Senate Committees on Appropriations on strategies linking outreach and
education program initiatives to each goal.
The House report accompanying the DOT appropriations bill for fiscal
year 2005 asked us to monitor and evaluate FMCSA's education and
outreach programs and to report on the status of these programs to the
House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.[Footnote 4] We (1)
describe the scope and nature of FMCSA's education and outreach
programs and how they relate to FMCSA's goals, (2) identify the extent
to which FMCSA has evaluated its education and outreach programs, and
(3) describe the extent to which FMCSA's education and outreach
programs are effective. As discussed with your staff, we focused on
five specific education and outreach programs: (1) the New Entrant; (2)
the Non-Entrant; (3) Commercial Safety-Belt Use; (4) Motor Coach
Selection Outreach; and (5) Household Goods Outreach programs and did
not review the "Share the Road Safely" program, which Congress
transferred from FMCSA to the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) in fiscal year 2004, with FMCSA retaining a
supporting role. The recent highway reauthorization
legislation[Footnote 5] authorizes funding for this program to both
FMCSA and NHTSA and asks us to review the "Share the Road Safely"
program by June 2006.
To describe the scope and nature of FMCSA's education and outreach
programs and FMCSA's intended results for these programs, we discussed
these programs with FMCSA officials at agency headquarters and two
field locations, and we reviewed program materials and documentation as
well as observed a safety audit for the new entrant program. We also
analyzed both the extent to which FMCSA describes how its programs lead
to agency goals and incorporates its education and outreach programs
into its strategic and program planning and performance budgeting. To
identify approaches to describing how agency programs contribute to
agency goals, we reviewed our previous work on government education
programs that showed how a program logic model--a model that links
activities to goals by analyzing program inputs, outputs, and outcomes-
-illustrates how education and outreach activities can influence
attitudes and behavior, and ultimately contribute to agency goals. To
identify what the agency was doing to evaluate these programs, we
discussed evaluations and evaluation plans with FMCSA officials at
agency headquarters and two field locations. We also reviewed
evaluation materials, including proposals and statements of work for
planned contracts to carry out programs and program evaluations.
Finally, to identify what is known about the effectiveness of the
programs, we conducted a literature review of media based campaigns and
reviewed the structure and evaluation of these campaigns related to
improving safety as well as behavioral theories used in designing the
campaigns. We selected two behavioral theories that were directly
applicable to the programs under this review, which are called the
theory of reasoned action[Footnote 6] and the general deterrence
theory.[Footnote 7] We also discussed what is currently known about the
effectiveness of these programs with FMCSA officials and with
representatives of associations that serve the trucking, motor coach,
and household goods moving industries, as well as a law enforcement
association and public interest groups that are involved in motor
carrier safety. Our work was conducted in accordance with generally
accepted government auditing standards. Appendix I provides the details
of our scope and methodology.
Results in Brief:
FMCSA has recently established several education and outreach programs
intended to promote motor carrier safety and consumer awareness.
Although FMCSA documents state that education activities are vital to
FMCSA's goal of reducing fatalities, injuries, and crashes, FMCSA has
not described how most of its education and outreach programs are
linked to agency goals. Four of the programs we reviewed accounted for
a relatively small portion of FMCSA's funding--1 percent of the
agency's fiscal year 2005 funding. However, the new entrant program
accounted for almost 7.5 percent of FMCSA's fiscal year 2005 funding.
These education and outreach programs are part of FMCSA's overall
approach to encourage safer practices and better decision making by
communicating information to motor carriers, commercial drivers, and
the public. FMCSA's education and outreach programs are as follows:
* The New Entrant program is designed to inform newly registered motor
carriers (new entrants) about motor carrier safety standards and
regulations to help them comply with FMCSA requirements. FMCSA
disseminates information on safety requirements in its Education and
Technical Assistance Package. In addition, FMCSA, state, or contractor
personnel visit new carriers within their first 18 months of operations
for "safety audits" to explain safety requirements and review
documentation. Although primarily informational, a carrier can fail its
safety audit if it cannot document sufficient compliance to pass at
least four of the six sections of the audit and, as a result, could
lose its operating license.
* A planned Non-Entrant program will focus on identifying carriers
engaging in interstate operations that have not registered with FMCSA
as required, making them aware of the requirements and getting them to
register. This program is still being developed but is expected to
include outreach efforts through truck sales and leasing firms.
* The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt program is aimed at
increasing safety-belt use among commercial drivers, which is lower
than safety-belt use by passenger vehicle drivers. FMCSA, in
partnership with industry, distributes brochures, posters, and bumper
stickers describing the importance of wearing safety belts. The
partnership also distributes its materials at trucking industry trade
shows, through law enforcement programs, and at truck stops.
* The Motor Coach Outreach program, officially known as Passenger
Carrier Safety, provides information to help organizations and
individuals who hire motor coach (bus) services make safe choices. The
primary program effort is a FMCSA Web site that makes information on
motor coach companies' safety history accessible to the public.
* The Household Goods Outreach program provides advice to help
individuals planning a move make informed decisions on selecting and
hiring moving companies through brochures, publications, and FMCSA's
Web site.
Research indicates that the development of education and outreach
programs should include identifying how these programs are expected to
change the target audience's attitudes and behaviors.[Footnote 8]
However, FMCSA has not clearly described how most of its education and
outreach programs link expected changes in attitudes and behavior to
broader goals, such as DOT's strategic objective of reducing
transportation-related fatalities.[Footnote 9] In the conference report
accompanying the DOT appropriations bill for fiscal year 2005, Congress
requested FMCSA to clarify the link between the agency's education and
outreach programs and program goals. FMCSA's October 2005 response to
Congress states that FMCSA considers education and outreach programs
vital in achieving overall DOT and FMCSA safety goals. However, the
agency did not describe how the programs are intended to influence
knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors that will support FMCSA's goals.
FMCSA officials told us that the agency uses logic models in its
performance budget to establish, at a high level, the link between its
education and outreach program and its goals. However, the link FMCSA
asserts was not evident to us for most of the education and outreach
programs we reviewed. For example, FMCSA's fiscal year 2006 performance
budget does describe how the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt
program[Footnote 10] will highlight the risks of not wearing a safety
belt, which FMCSA officials believe should improve drivers' attitudes
toward wearing safety belts, and subsequently meet the program goal of
increasing safety-belt usage 10 percent by 2009. However, the
performance budget does not describe similar links between other FMCSA
education and outreach programs and how those programs help achieve DOT
and FMCSA safety and productivity objectives. This lack of clarity in
FMCSA's planning, budgeting, and program documents relating to
education and outreach programs can make it difficult for stakeholders,
including congressional oversight authorities, to see how program
activities that seek to change attitudes and behavior can relate to
agency goals and whether the programs are appropriately targeted. In
contrast, FMCSA's Research and Technology group has used a logic model
to clearly describe how program activities support agency goals in its
strategic plan. As FMCSA further articulates the links between its
education and outreach programs and its goals, it might consider using
a tool such as the one used by FMCSA's Research and Technology group to
make those relationships clear.
FMCSA has begun some evaluations of its education and outreach
programs. Since most of these programs are relatively new and most
evaluations are still being planned, little information on results is
currently available. Therefore, FMCSA has limited information on
program effectiveness, particularly for the New Entrant program.
FMCSA's evaluation related activities and gaps in these activities are
described below:
* For the New Entrant program, FMCSA conducted a preliminary comparison
of crash rates for new entrants who had received safety audits during
the first part of 2003 with new entrants who had not received safety
audits and found little difference in the crash rates of the two
groups. In addition, FMCSA is planning to conduct an evaluation study
beginning in 2008 to examine new entrants' safety performance. Although
the program has been in place for over 2 years, FMCSA has not evaluated
and has not developed plans to evaluate the New Entrant program,
specifically whether the information package or safety audits
effectively communicate information to new entrants, making it
difficult to determine the effectiveness of that program in improving
new motor carriers' knowledge of safety requirements and ultimately
improving safety.
* For the planned Non-Entrant program, FMCSA is planning to hire a
contractor to identify the target population of non-entrants, measure
if the outreach approaches it implements are reaching the target
audience through focus group studies, and measure changes in knowledge
and attitudes and changes in behavior through surveys.
* For the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt program, FMCSA is
installing software to monitor Web site hits, planning focus groups
with motor carrier operators on how safety belt marketing material
affected their awareness of the importance of using safety belts, and
planning to annually measure safety-belt usage by commercial vehicle
drivers.
* For the Motor Coach Outreach program, FMCSA uses a web survey to
track exposure to information provided. FMCSA also expects to evaluate
the program under a contract it plans to award, which will support
surveys and other evaluations of its education and outreach programs.
* For the Household Goods Outreach program, FMCSA has contracted with
the General Services Administration to measure the effectiveness of its
booklet on moving tips in changing consumer knowledge by surveying the
target audience. It also expects to evaluate the program under the
planned survey contract.[Footnote 11]
It is difficult to determine the overall effectiveness of FMCSA's
education and outreach efforts at this time; however, on the basis of
behavior theory and our discussions with industry and public safety
groups, the design of FMCSA's programs appears to be reasonable for
contributing to commercial motor vehicle safety. Little information on
effectiveness is available, since FMCSA has not completed many
evaluations of its programs, and so it cannot be sure of the extent to
which target audiences have received the information and intend on
changing their behavior. However, two of FMCSA's education and outreach
programs and marketing materials we reviewed appear to follow theories
and research regarding media campaigns that are intended to influence
decision making about safety. The Household Goods Outreach and Motor
Coach Outreach programs--targeted toward consumers--focus on changing
consumer attitudes by providing information about potential
consequences of their actions. For example, the Motor Coach Outreach
program conveys information on the safety history of motor coach
companies. As a result, after considering this information consumers
may change their behavior and select a motor coach company with a good
safety record. In contrast, research and behavior theory described in
several studies we reviewed suggest that industry--the target audiences
of the Safety Belt, New Entrant, and Non-Entrant programs--may be more
likely to change behaviors when exposed to both education and
enforcement. FMCSA's program documentation indicates enforcement is
part of the agency's efforts to increase safety-belt usage and will be
part of the agency's efforts to decrease the number of non-entrants. In
part because there are few sanctions for carriers who fail certain
portions of the safety audit, FMCSA is now increasing the enforcement
associated with its safety audits by making it more difficult to pass
the audit and requiring carriers to correct deficiencies. Currently, a
carrier can pass its safety audit even if it fails two of the six
sections of the audit. We found, for example, that over the past 2
years, about 40 percent of the carriers failed the "driver" section of
their safety audits, despite passing the audit overall.[Footnote 12]
Finally, motor carrier association officials whom we spoke with stated
that, in their view, FMCSA is doing several positive things in its
education and outreach activities. In addition, officials of one public
safety group suggested that FMCSA followed reasonable approaches in
starting its education and outreach efforts, so implementation in
theory should be effective; however, the officials would like to see
more evaluations on program effectiveness in the future to help FMCSA
refine its programs. Another safety group we spoke with emphasized
FMCSA's need for stronger enforcement in conjunction with education and
outreach programs.
Our study found that for most of the FMCSA's education and outreach
programs we reviewed, it is unclear how the activities link to program
and agency goals. In addition, although FMCSA plans to conduct a study
beginning in 2008 of its New Entrant program, the agency has not
evaluated the effectiveness of the education and outreach of this
program. To more clearly describe and better evaluate FMCSA education
and outreach programs, we are recommending that the Secretary of
Transportation direct the Administrator of FMCSA to take two actions:
(1) ensure that the agency describes and documents how education and
outreach program activities link to and support broader program and
agency goals in a planning, program, or budget document that is
available to the public and (2) evaluate the effectiveness of the
education and outreach component of the New Entrant program, assessing
the extent to which the Education and Technical Assistance Package and
safety audits are helping new carriers learn and understand FMCSA
requirements. We provided a draft of this report to DOT for its review
and comment. In responding to a draft of this report, DOT and FMCSA
officials, through the DOT liaison, provided oral comments. Agency
officials disagreed with GAO's characterization that FMCSA has not
linked its education and outreach programs with its overall goals. We
acknowledge the FMCSA comments in our report. Because we did not find
this link evident for most of the education and outreach programs, we
retained our recommendation with some clarification. The officials also
provided technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.
Background:
FMCSA, established as a separate administration under DOT by the Motor
Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 is responsible for improving the
safety of commercial vehicle operations on the nation's highways. FMCSA
is engaged in several programs and activities to carry out its mission,
including developing and enforcing Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Regulations, administering Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program
grants to states, regulating interstate household goods movers, and
performing education and outreach. FMCSA operates through its
headquarters in Washington, D.C; four regional service centers; and
division offices located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia,
and Puerto Rico.
FMCSA undertakes education or outreach while carrying out many of its
functions--for example, in posting regulations pertaining to commercial
drivers' licensing or transporting hazardous materials on its Web site,
or in providing on-line access to motor carrier crash statistics. FMCSA
is also allocated funding for specific education and outreach programs.
In fiscal year 2005, FMCSA used education and outreach funding for
activities supporting its Safety Belt program targeted to commercial
vehicle drivers, outreach to the public on hiring motor coach services,
and outreach to consumers using household goods movers. Congress also
allocated fiscal year 2005 funding for FMCSA's program directed at
recently registered new entrant motor carriers and funding to establish
an initiative directed to non-entrants--which are carriers in
interstate operations that have not registered with DOT.
Under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA),
federal programs should be designed with measurable goals that support
the agency's overall strategic goals. Congress enacted GPRA to shift
agencies' focus from simply monitoring activities undertaken to
measuring the results of these activities. Under GPRA, agencies develop
multiyear strategic plans, which are the starting point for their
performance measurement. Each strategic plan is to include a mission
statement, a set of outcome-related strategic goals, and a description
of how the agency intends to achieve these goals. To measure progress
toward the strategic goals, we have previously reported that the agency
should also have a plan for collecting data to measure and evaluate
program performance.[Footnote 13] Without measurable goals and
evaluation, it is difficult to determine whether the program is
accomplishing its intended purpose and whether the resources dedicated
to the program efforts should be increased, used in other ways, or
applied elsewhere.
Research conducted on the effectiveness of media campaigns[Footnote 14]
indicates that the development of an education and outreach program
should include identifying how the program is expected to change the
target audience's attitudes and behaviors. There are several theories
and models on affecting behavior, and two in particular are the most
relevant to the education and outreach programs under this review. This
is because the theories are consistent with the structure and goals of
the FMCSA programs we reviewed. One behavioral model that researchers
have developed--the reasoned action theory--assumes that people will
take a desired action if they believe the action is beneficial, and
they have the means to undertake it. Another model that experts have
developed--the general deterrence theory--indicates that in some
circumstances people will take a desired action when they recognize
that they may be punished for failing to act. The relative roles of
education and enforcement depend upon the program's target audience,
the desired change to be achieved, and other factors.
Since media campaigns should identify how the program is expected to
change target audiences' attitudes and behaviors, program managers can
use a tool or framework to show how outreach activities are intended to
influence attitudes and behaviors, and thus achieve broad program
goals. Academic literature on program development and evaluation
provides a number of models. One tool we have previously used to review
education and outreach programs[Footnote 15] is called a logic model. A
logic model links program inputs and outputs to program outcomes (see
fig. 3). Agencies have used such a model to plan, evaluate, and adjust
program activities. A logic model can facilitate planning and
evaluation by (1) demonstrating accountability through focusing on
measurable outcomes; (2) linking activities to results to prevent
mismatches between program activities and outcomes; and (3) integrating
planning, implementation, evaluation, and reporting. In addition, a
program logic model can help describe a program's components and
desired results and explain the strategy--or logic--by which the
program is expected to achieve its goals. The logic model can help
clarify the links between program components, focusing on outcomes that
are measured and under some degree of control. In some cases, it may be
difficult to show a direct link--a specific cause and effect--between
program activities and outcomes due to the influence of external
factors. For example, the Safety Belt program, although targeted toward
commercial motor vehicles operators, may have outcomes influenced by
the NHTSA's "Click It or Ticket" program targeted to passenger car
drivers. Commercial motor vehicle operators could be affected by this
program, or other safety-belt messages, and decide to wear safety belts
when driving commercially. Thus, the Safety Belt program's initiatives
may not have been the primary factor in determining a particular
driver's safety-belt use.
Finally, once program activities are established and linked to program
goals, organizations can use program evaluation to determine whether or
not a program is meeting its goals. Program evaluations are conducted
periodically to provide an overall assessment of how well a program is
achieving its expected results. We have reported on the value of
program evaluations to assess the impact of a particular
program.[Footnote 16] This work showed that results of evaluations can
support decisions on resource allocation and ways to improve program
effectiveness.
FMCSA Has Established Several Education and Outreach Efforts but Needs
Specific Links to Goals:
FMCSA has established several education and outreach programs, with
different purposes targeted to different audiences. Total funding for
these programs in fiscal year 2005 was $36.3 million, with the largest
share--$33.1 million--allotted to the New Entrant program. FMCSA's
education and outreach efforts are intended to address recognized
problems by communicating information to motor carriers, commercial
drivers, and the public to encourage safer practices and better
decision making. FMCSA activities under these programs range from
distributing brochures and posting information on Web sites, to site
visits to newly registered motor carriers under its New Entrant
program. Although FMCSA officials consider these programs to be linked
to agency goals at a high level, this linkage to broader agency goals
is not explicit in the agency's planning and budgeting documents. FMCSA
officials state that they have used a logic model in their performance
budgets to illustrate the link between education and outreach and
agency goals at a high level. Although the performance budget implies a
link between the education and outreach program and agency goals, it
does not describe how the activities are intended to support these
goals. As a result, it is difficult for stakeholders to see how
education and outreach activities that seek changes in attitudes and
behavior will ultimately contribute to agency goals. Also, without a
clear link, program managers can not easily determine if program
activities are appropriately targeted or if they need to refine their
programs to meet agency goals. In contrast, we found, however, that
FMCSA uses a logic model in the strategic plan for its Research and
Technology group to demonstrate how its programs and activities support
agency goals. As FMCSA continues its efforts to develop the links
between its education and outreach activities and broader goals, it
might consider using such a logic model to make those relationships
clear.
Education and Outreach Programs Address a Range of Safety and Consumer
Protection Concerns and Are Targeted to Industry and the Public:
We reviewed five education and outreach programs that FMCSA has
initiated in response to either congressional direction or concerns
about motor carrier operations. FMCSA's education and outreach programs
target a variety of audiences, including the motor carrier industry,
commercial vehicle drivers, and the public; and they involve a variety
of approaches, such as direct contact with carriers, media campaigns,
distributing printed materials, and establishing Web sites. FMCSA also
works with industry and law enforcement associations, other agencies,
and safety-oriented organizations in carrying out some of these
education and outreach efforts. Four of these programs are about motor
carrier, driver, or passenger safety, while one has a consumer
information focus. Table 1 provides a brief overview of the target
audience, general purpose of the program, and program activities.
Table 1: Overview of FMCSA Education and Outreach Programs:
Program: New Entrant;
Target audience: New motor carriers that have registered with FMCSA;
Program purpose: Promoting compliance with FMCSA safety requirements,
during new carriers' first 18 months of operation;
Activities: * Web site on motor carrier regulations;
* Education and Technical Assistance Package;
* Personal contact with new carriers through safety audits by state or
federal officials, or contractors.
Program: Non-Entrant (Planned);
Target audience: Motor carriers that are operating interstate but have
not registered with FMCSA;
Program purpose: Increasing registrations by carriers that should
register with FMCSA;
Activities: * Planned outreach through truck sales and leasing firms.
Program: Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt Use;
Target audience: Commercial vehicle drivers;
Program purpose: Increasing safety-belt use by commercial vehicle
drivers;
Activities: * Brochures, posters, bumper stickers distributed through
trade shows and law enforcement campaigns;
* Safety belt information on Web site.
Program: Motor Coach Outreach;
Target audience: Organizations such as schools and individuals that
hire motor coach services;
Program purpose: Enabling the public to make more informed choices when
selecting a motor coach company;
Activities: * Web site information on selecting a motor coach company
and company safety information.
Program: Household Goods Outreach;
Target audience: Individuals that are planning to move across state
lines;
Program purpose: Enabling the public to be better informed about
selecting an interstate moving company;
Activities: * Brochures distributed through moving companies and other
means;
* Web site information on selecting and contracting with a moving
company.
Source: GAO analysis of FMCSA information.
[End of table]
The five programs in this review are summarized below, and discussed in
greater detail in appendix II.
New Entrant Program:
FMCSA intends the New Entrant program to inform newly registered motor
carriers (new entrants) about motor carrier safety standards and
regulations to help them gain compliance with FMCSA requirements and
improve truck safety and thus reduce crash rates.[Footnote 17] Studies
have shown that new carriers have higher safety violation and crash
rates than more experienced carriers. FMCSA uses its Education and
Technical Assistance Package to communicate safety requirements and
other information to new entrants when they register with DOT. This
information package is also available at FMCSA's Web site, along with
carrier registration forms.[Footnote 18] The primary activity of the
New Entrant program is safety audits conducted through site visits to
the new carriers. Safety audits are conducted by FMCSA, state law
enforcement, or contractor personnel, who review the carrier's
compliance with FMCSA requirements, including driver qualifications,
driver records of duty status, vehicle maintenance records, and
participation in a controlled substance and alcohol use testing
program. As of April 2005, FMCSA had conducted 52,000 safety audits
since the New Entrant program began in 2003.
Non-Entrant Program:
FMCSA is developing a Non-Entrant program intended to inform start-up
motor carriers who have not registered with the agency--called non-
entrants--of the requirement to register with FMCSA. FMCSA officials
are concerned that carriers that have not registered with FMCSA may
represent an increased safety risk. FMCSA expects to target motor
carriers who have not registered as interstate carriers with FMCSA, by
working through truck sales and leasing firms to inform start-up motor
carriers about registration requirements and, ultimately, to ensure
that the carriers register as new entrants. FMCSA officials expect to
award a contract to develop the Non-Entrant program before the end of
2005.
Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt Program:
The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt program is intended to
increase safety-belt use by commercial truck drivers. FMCSA began this
effort after a study showed that only 48 percent of commercial truck
drivers used safety belts, compared with nearly 80 percent safety-belt
use by passenger car drivers. Working through the Commercial Motor
Vehicle Safety Belt Partnership--an organization of government,
industry, law enforcement, and safety associations--FMCSA facilitates
and coordinates the development and distribution of outreach materials,
including posters, bumper stickers, and brochures promoting safety-belt
use. (See fig. 1 for an example of a brochure describing the safety-
belt partnership.) Working through the Partnership allows FMCSA to
leverage its resources and tap into organizations that have their own
communication links to the trucking industry. FMCSA staff distribute
materials through trucking industry shows and events, and state law
enforcement personnel distribute materials during safety enforcement
campaigns. FMCSA has prepared over 200,000 brochures and 50,000 bumper
stickers for the 2005 "Be Ready, Be Buckled" campaign. FMCSA also
provides safety belt information through its Web site.
Figure 1: Cover of Safety Belt Partnership Brochure:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
Motor Coach Outreach Program:
The Motor Coach Outreach program provides consumers with information to
help them select and hire motor coach services. The program began
following an increase in motor coach accident fatalities. Currently,
FMCSA's primary effort is maintaining a Web site that allows
individuals to access advice on selecting a motor coach company and
safety information on specific motor coach companies. For the "Moving
Kids Safely" campaign in 2002 that was part of the Motor Coach Outreach
program, FMCSA created 49,000 brochures; 1,200 posters; and 1,200
"toolkits" to provide advice to school districts on hiring school bus
services. FMCSA also reaches out to the industry to inform motor coach
companies of regulations and provide safety advice through printed
materials and the agency's motor coach specialists.
Household Goods Outreach Program:
The Household Goods Outreach program is intended to help consumers make
more informed choices in selecting an interstate moving company to
avoid unscrupulous movers. This program was begun in response to
congressional concern over increasing consumer complaints about
fraudulent moving companies. FMCSA distributes printed material through
moving companies and other means, such as its Web site and the General
Services Administration (GSA) consumer information catalog, to inform
consumers of their rights when dealing with moving companies. The
material that FMCSA has developed includes a new outreach theme:
"Protect Your Memories, Your Money, Your Move" and it includes
brochures and presentations that can be delivered by FMCSA staff. For
example, as of October 2005, FMCSA officials reported that they had
printed a total of 50,000 copies of the two brochures the agency
distributes. FMCSA also maintains a hotline to receive complaints from
individuals about problems with movers and enters them into a database.
Although FMCSA does not get involved in resolving complaints, the
agency uses the database to target firms for investigation. Also, we
previously reported that FMCSA should make the complaint information
available to consumers.[Footnote 19] According to FMCSA officials the
agency has not yet done this because of privacy and other legal issues.
Except for the New Entrant Program, Education and Outreach Funding
Represents a Small Portion of FMCSA's Budget:
The five education and outreach programs represent a small portion of
FMCSA's total funding. Fiscal year 2005 funding for the five programs
totaled $36.3 million, out of approximately $443.3 million to fund
FMCSA operations and grant programs. The New Entrant program accounted
for $33.1 million of the funding for the five programs, while funding
for the other four programs combined was $3.2 million--less than 1
percent of the agency's total fiscal year 2005 funding.
The first chart in figure 2 below depicts the New Entrant program, and
the combined funding for the other four programs, as their relative
share of total FMCSA funding in fiscal year 2005. The second chart
depicts the relative size of the four smaller education and outreach
programs.
Figure 2: FMCSA Fiscal Year 2005 Education and Outreach Funding:
[See PDF for image]
Note: Data resulted from U.S. House of Representatives Report 108-792,
Making Appropriations for Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
Related Programs for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2005, and for
Other Purposes (Nov. 20, 2004): and discussions with FMCSA officials.
[A] Congressional language accompanying the fiscal year 2005 DOT
appropriations requested FMCSA to apply $50,000 to the "Safety is Good
Business" program. FMCSA officials informed us that this amount would
be added to the $1.0 million appropriated for the Non-Entrant program.
[End of figure]
The funding available for education and outreach supports a diverse
range of activities, from the costs of state personnel conducting
safety audits, to the costs of printing and distributing brochures and
other materials, and the costs of contracts being awarded to develop
and evaluate education and outreach activities. The principal
activities that FMCSA is undertaking through the five programs are
shown in table 2.
Table 2: How Fiscal Year 2005 Outreach and Education Funding Is Being
Used:
Program: New Entrant;
FY 2005 Funding: $33,100,000;
Principal use of funding[A]: $30,100,000 in grants to states to conduct
safety audits; $3,000,000 for FMCSA to contract for safety audits.
Program: Commercial Motor Carrier Safety-Belt Use;
FY 2005 Funding: $500,000;
Principal use of funding[A]: $440,000 interagency transfer to NHTSA for
two studies addressing safety belt use by commercial drivers;
$24,400 for brochures, posters, bumper stickers and other materials
prepared for "Be Ready, Be Buckled" campaign.[B].
Program: Motor Coach Outreach;
FY 2005 Funding: $150,000;
Principal use of funding[A]: Printing and distributing brochures, Web
site maintenance, and surveys of Web-site users.
Program: Household Goods;
Outreach;
FY 2005 Funding: $1,488,000;
Principal use of funding[A]: $900,000 for education, outreach and
evaluation support contracts;
$570,000 for complaint database development and maintenance.
Program: Non-Entrant;
FY 2005 Funding: $1,050,000;
Principal use of funding[A]: $1,000,000 appropriated for a Non-Entrant
program plus $50,000 targeted for "Safety is Good Business," will be
used to contract for development of a Non-Entrant program.
Source: FMCSA information.
[A] Because these examples illustrate the principal use of components
of these programs, in some cases they do not add to the total amounts
spent in the programs.
[B] The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) provides additional
financial support for printing and distributing brochures under this
initiative.
[End of table]
FMCSA Has Not Clearly Articulated How Its Education and Outreach
Initiatives Will Support Broader Goals:
Congress has expressed concern about how FMCSA's education and outreach
activities are meeting broader goals, such as individual program goals,
or DOT's strategic goals. The conference report accompanying the DOT
appropriations bill for fiscal year 2005, for example, asked that FMCSA
report by April 2005 to the House and Senate Committees on
Appropriations on strategies linking outreach and education program
initiatives to each goal.[Footnote 20] FMCSA sent its report on October
11, 2005. The report indicates that FMCSA believes education and
outreach programs support the overall DOT safety strategic objective of
"enhancing public health and safety by elimination of transportation
deaths and injuries." FMCSA also indicates that every education
activity undertaken "is vital to FMCSA's goal of reducing fatalities,
injuries, and crashes, and attaining a large truck crash rate of no
more than 1.65 fatalities per 100 million miles of truck travel by the
end of 2008."
Although the report was intended to address congressional concerns
about linking education and outreach to program goals, it is unclear
specifically how this will be accomplished, since the report does not
describe how these programs are intended to influence knowledge,
attitudes, and behaviors and thus support FMCSA's broader goals.
Although the report describes in detail the activities FMCSA is
undertaking for each of these programs, it does not describe how these
activities are intended to change attitudes and behaviors that will
ultimately meet FMCSA's goals.
In addition, although FMCSA's fiscal year 2006 performance budget has
some discussion of how activities support FMCSA and DOT safety and
productivity goals, except for the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt
program, none of the budget or program documentation we reviewed for
FMCSA's education and outreach programs provides detailed descriptions
about how activities link to goals. A greater level of detail in the
description of how education and outreach program activities link to
goals would help the public and other interested parties to see how
program activities that seek changes in attitudes and behavior will
ultimately contribute to agency goals. Furthermore, without this link,
program managers cannot easily determine if program activities are
appropriately targeted or if they need to refine their programs to meet
agency goals.
FMCSA officials stated that information about education and outreach
programs is reported in DOT's strategic plan and in FMCSA's performance
budget documents.[Footnote 21] However, DOT's strategic plan does not
specifically address FMCSA's education and outreach programs and refers
readers to the performance budgets for more detailed, program-specific
information. FMCSA's performance budget documents identify strategic
objectives, such as saving lives and reducing injuries by preventing
bus and truck crashes, that link and contribute to objectives in DOT's
strategic plan, such as reducing transportation-related fatalities. It
also identifies underlying performance goals and indicators for each
objective. For example, FMCSA's strategic objective for safety is
illustrated in table 3.
Table 3: Hierarchy of Objective, Goal, and Indicators for FMCSA's
Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Objective:
Strategic objective;
Save lives and reduce injuries by preventing truck and bus crashes.
Performance goal;
Reduce the rate of large truck-related fatalities to no more than 1.65
fatalities per 100 million truck vehicle miles traveled by the end of
2008.
Leading indicators;
Fatalities in large truck crashes; Intercity bus fatalities; Injuries
in large truck crashes; Rate of large truck- related injuries.
Source: Performance Budget Estimates section of FMCSA's Fiscal Year
2006 Budget Submission to Congress.
[End of table]
The performance budget documents address education and outreach
primarily under this strategic objective for safety, by stating that
"educating carriers about the benefits of operating safely, and in
compliance with safety regulations, is advantageous to both the carrier
and enforcement community." The budget also states that the education
programs are designed to change "the knowledge, attitudes, and
behaviors of commercial motor carriers, commercial motor vehicle
drivers, and passenger vehicle drivers, driving in the vicinity of
large trucks."
However, the performance budget does not provide specific information
for each program on how these expected attitude and behavior changes
are linked to broader goals. Of the five programs included in our
review, the description of the safety belt initiative provides the
clearest information articulating how the program is intended to affect
the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of its targeted audience, and
consequently to improve safety. FMCSA describes how education will
highlight the risks of not wearing a safety belt, which in turn is
intended to improve drivers' attitudes toward wearing safety belts, and
subsequently meet the program goal of increasing safety-belt usage 10
percent by 2009 and further, meet the strategic objective of reducing
fatalities.[Footnote 22] The performance budget also indicates that
education will be combined with traffic enforcement of safety-belt
requirements to achieve this outcome. In contrast, the performance
budget discusses the New Entrant program in terms of staffing, funding,
and the number of safety audits to be done in fiscal year 2006, without
defining a goal for what the New Entrant program will accomplish and
how that accomplishment would contribute to the strategic objective of
reducing fatalities.
In addition, the links between the Motor Coach and Household Goods
program activities and broader strategic goals are difficult to
discern. Specifically, the performance budget document explains that
the Motor Coach program seeks to increase consumers' knowledge about
the safety records of carriers, with a potential side benefit of
encouraging motor carriers to maintain good safety records. FMCSA does
not, however, describe how affecting consumers' choice of a particular
motor coach company would support the overall strategic objective of
reducing transportation-related fatalities. FMCSA's performance budget
relates its Household Goods program to DOT's mobility and FMCSA's
productivity objectives. The mobility objective is "to advance
accessible, efficient, and intermodal transportation for the movement
of people and goods."[Footnote 23] The productivity strategic objective
is "to promote efficient and economical motor carrier operations to
sustain mobility and economic growth." The performance budget document
asserts links between these objectives and the education and outreach
program, but it does not explain how specific activities--such as
establishing its Web site on selecting moving companies and creating
brochures on consumer rights and responsibilities--support either of
these objectives.[Footnote 24]
On the basis of our discussions with FMCSA officials, it appears the
agency is attempting to more clearly describe how education and
outreach activities link to the agency's goals. FMCSA acknowledged that
there may have been some disconnection between the strategic planning
and budgeting processes in the past, but managers have recently
received training on defining a program's desired outcome and then
linking inputs--such as funding--and outputs. Officials told us that as
a result the agency's proposed fiscal year 2007 performance budget will
better link programs and goals to budget requests. FMCSA's eventual
goal is to link program outputs to outcomes, as well as identifying
measurable and verifiable goals to the extent possible.
A Logic Model Provides a Framework for Linking Program Activities to
Desired Results and Goals:
Although the relationships among program activities, changes in
knowledge and behaviors, and broader goals can sometimes seem
intuitive, laying a program out through a logic model can be useful for
program managers and stakeholders to demonstrate and understand these
relationships. FMCSA officials state that they use a logic model in its
performance budget to link education and outreach to agency objectives.
However, the performance budget implies a link between the education
and outreach program budget and agency goals without describing how
FMCSA intends the program to change behaviors, such as following
federal safety regulations, to support agency goals, as would be shown
in a logic model. FMCSA has used a logic model in another program area
that provides a description of how a program is intended to support
agency goals. Specifically, FMCSA's Research and Technology group used
a logic model along with other planning tools to demonstrate how its
activities support FMCSA's goals in its 5-Year Strategic Plan. The
Research and Technology logic model includes inputs such as staff,
outputs such as research studies, outcomes such as improved
understanding of root causes of crashes, and impacts such as fewer
commercial motor vehicle crashes.[Footnote 25] FMCSA described the
Research and Technology Logic Model as a "mechanism to help define
metrics for performance, quality, and relevance of the
program."[Footnote 26]
As FMCSA endeavors to describe how its education and outreach program
activities affect the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of its target
audiences, and link these results to broader goals, it may wish to
consider a tool such as a logic model--as the agency used in its
Research and Technology strategic plan--to clearly outline those links.
In previous work on educational and outreach,[Footnote 27] we used a
logic model to describe the program components--inputs and outputs--and
how these support the desired results, thus explaining the strategy--or
logic--by which programs are expected to achieve their goals. Figure 3
graphically depicts this model and its components.
Figure 3: Program Logic Model:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
The logic model illustrates how program activities such as distributing
informational pamphlets contribute to the results of a program, such as
increasing safety-belt usage, and to an ultimate goal, such as reducing
fatalities. In addition, program managers should consider the effect of
external factors when defining outcomes and recognize that the
correlation between activities and desired outcomes may not be as
direct as one would like. Without a logic model or similar tool to
clearly describe the links between education and outreach programs and
broader goals, FMCSA may have difficulty designing and evaluating
effective programs.
Evaluations of Specific Education and Outreach Programs Impacts Are
Still in Preliminary Stages, but the Lack of a Plan to Evaluate How New
Entrant Safety Audits Improve Knowledge and Attitudes Raises Concern:
FMCSA has begun some evaluations of its education and outreach
activities, including the New Entrant program, and plans to use
contractors to evaluate some programs. Surveys and studies are the
primary means by which FMCSA or its contractor will evaluate the
programs. However, some gaps in evaluation plans remain, especially for
the largest of the programs we reviewed. Specifically, FMCSA has not
evaluated whether the Education and Technical Assistance Package
provided to new entrants and the safety audits conducted under the New
Entrant program effectively communicated information to new entrants,
making it difficult to determine the impact of that program. A list of
FMCSA's evaluations and planned evaluations are provided in figure 4.
Figure 4: FMCSA's Evaluations and Planned Evaluations by Program:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
For each program, FMCSA's evaluation efforts are described as follows.
New Entrant Program:
FMCSA evaluates the performance of the New Entrant program primarily by
tracking the number of safety audits conducted of new motor carriers.
The agency has a goal of conducting a certain number of safety audits
per year, safety audits of 80 percent of new entrants within the first
6 months they are in business, and 100 percent of all new entrants
within their first 18 months of operation. FMCSA sets employee
performance goals for division office managers for conducting a
particular number of safety audits of new entrants. According to FMCSA
officials, agency personnel conducted over 9,400 safety audits in
fiscal year 2005, exceeding their goal of 8,000 FMCSA completed safety
audits. In addition, by April 2005, 52,000 safety audits had been
conducted since the program began, and the number conducted each
quarter has been generally increasing. However, FMCSA officials
acknowledge that there is a safety audit backlog in some states, and
the goals for auditing new entrants in the first 6 months, and the
first 18 months, are not being met. The number of safety audits
reflects the number of new registrants that were personally informed
about the carrier requirements. Using registration data on the number
of new entrants, the agency can estimate the number of new entrants
needing a safety audit and agency progress toward the program goal.
There are about 40,000 new entrants registered per year, but officials
told us that about 40 percent drop out or discontinue business within
the first year of operations.
By tracking the number of safety audits conducted, FMCSA seeks to
determine the extent to which it has provided information to its
targeted audience of new drivers. FMCSA has no process to measure
whether new entrants' awareness of safe trucking practices was raised,
which ideally would be a consequence of an effective education and
outreach effort. Specifically, although FMCSA plans to evaluate the New
Entrant program in 2008, it has no current plan to determine how
FMCSA's safety requirement information, such as its Education and
Technical Assistance Package and its safety audits, affect new
entrants' (1) awareness of FMCSA requirements, such as drug and alcohol
testing requirements or (2) their motivation to change behaviors that
might lead to safer operations. The New Entrant program manager
indicated that since the program is new and still evolving, the
outreach campaign does not have much historical data to evaluate.
Although the program has not been in existence very long, FMCSA
officials stated that the agency has conducted one study of the New
Entrant program and has plans to conduct another. One preliminary
analysis by FMCSA compared the crash rates of new motor carriers
registering with FMCSA during 2002 to the crash rates of over 1,000 new
motor carriers that registered with FMCSA and had a safety audit during
the first 6 months of 2003. This analysis showed that there was little
difference between the crash rates of these two groups. FMCSA officials
said that they are planning a study to be conducted after planned
changes to the safety audit, discussed later in this report, have been
in place for a period of time. Officials told us that the study planned
to begin in 2008 will examine carriers' safety records over time,
although they have not yet developed an evaluation plan.
We have previously reported on the difficulties of assessing education
and outreach programs such as the New Entrant program. We have also
reported, however, that federal agencies are expected to demonstrate
how their activities contribute to achieving agency or governmentwide
goals. Additionally, the guidance that FMCSA uses when developing
evaluation efforts for education and outreach programs--a booklet
entitled The Art of Appropriate Evaluation[Footnote 28] --published by
NHTSA--emphasizes that evaluations should include measurements of
changes in awareness, knowledge, and behavior. If FMCSA's planned
evaluation of the New Entrant program does not consider whether the
program is actually succeeding in effectively conveying the educational
material on safe trucking practices, FMCSA will be unable to clearly
determine the program's impact. Or, if safety audits are having little
impact, as suggested by FMCSA's preliminary analysis, the agency will
not be able to determine whether it is due to (1) the educational
material provided, (2) how the information is conveyed during the
safety audits, (3) the lack of follow-up on the safety audit results,
or (4) other factors. Additionally, it will be difficult to demonstrate
to Congress that this program is having its desired effect.
Non-Entrant Program:
This program has not yet begun. FMCSA officials plan to award a
contract by the end of 2005 to develop, implement, and evaluate the Non-
Entrant program. The contractor is to test the effectiveness of the
outreach materials while they are being developed to determine if they
will reach the intended audience and effectively changed knowledge and
attitudes. Development of the materials will include surveying the
targeted audience and conducting outreach through truck leasing and
sales firms. FMCSA's program plan indicated that the contractor will be
expected to assess changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of
its target audience.
Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt Program:
FMCSA officials stated that they plan to evaluate this initiative in
several ways once they have finalized its evaluation arrangements.
According to FMCSA officials, during program design, FMCSA tested its
marketing materials with target audiences, including truck drivers, and
found that the marketing material was appropriately targeted. Also,
FMCSA is installing software to track the number of Web-site hits on
certain of its Web pages that contain important educational elements of
the Safety Belt campaign. This system will enable FMCSA to determine
how many times its information has been viewed, but it will not enable
FMCSA officials to know whether that information was effectively
conveyed to its target audience or changed their attitudes about
wearing safety belts. Nonetheless, FMCSA officials believe that this
software will enable program managers to monitor and determine which
Web-site pages are viewed, and therefore are more effective, based on
the number of hits and the length of time at each site. Furthermore,
FMCSA is considering focus groups and surveys with carriers on how
safety belt marketing material affected their awareness of the
importance of using safety belts.
In addition, FMCSA has an agreement with NHTSA for two efforts that
could measure progress toward the expected outcome of this initiative-
-a 10-percent increase in use of safety belts from 2006 through 2009.
The first effort is a study, expected to be completed in December 2005,
which updates a 2003 commercial motor vehicle study that reported that
48 percent of commercial drivers wear safety belts. The new study will
update information on the percentage of commercial drivers that wear
safety belts by replicating the methodology used in the 2003 study,
according to FMCSA officials. The second effort will investigate the
feasibility of annually collecting data on safety-belt use by
commercial drivers through the National Occupant Protection Usage Study
(NOPUS) sponsored by NHTSA. Although these efforts will measure safety-
belt use, they will not evaluate whether the education and outreach
program in particular contributed to changes in the number of
individuals wearing safety belts.
Motor Coach Outreach Program:
FMCSA has a Web-based, pop-up survey for its Web site which, although
focusing on consumer satisfaction in general, gives FMCSA some ideas
about Web-site usage and exposure to the information contained on the
site. The survey randomly selects visitors to the Motor Coach Web site
and asks them to answer a series of questions concerning the accuracy,
quality, convenience, and ability of finding needed information. The
survey also asks visitors about their overall satisfaction with the Web
site. Although these questions may be generally helpful to rate the Web
site experience, more specific questions on the Motor Coach program
information have not been incorporated. The pop-up survey has
flexibility for use in other FMCSA program Web pages, and FMCSA has
plans to use Web-based usage tracking as an additional tool in the
future. However, with only a small budget--$150,000 in fiscal year
2005--for the Motor Coach program, it is reasonable to expect that
FMCSA would balance the need for this type of evaluation information
with its other education and outreach program priorities.
As of October 2005, FMCSA officials also had plans to award a contract
for contractor support to conduct surveys, focus groups, and interviews
to evaluate its education and outreach programs, including obtaining
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) clearance for these
activities.[Footnote 29] FMCSA officials told us that the motor coach
program would be evaluated under this contract.
Household Goods Outreach Program:
FMCSA has identified at least two approaches to evaluate the
effectiveness of the outreach efforts for the household goods outreach
program. One effort is to survey recipients who have received the Ready
to Move - Tips for a Successful Interstate Move booklet from GSA. As of
May 2005, 703 surveys had been distributed to determine whether the
recipients believed that the booklet would change their intentions
about which household goods carrier they might select. The survey asks
questions regarding the effectiveness of the booklet and its
information content. Also, FMCSA officials stated that the Household
Goods program would be evaluated under the survey support contract
discussed in the preceding section on the Motor Coach program.
An FMCSA official whom we spoke with indicated that the elderly may be
particularly targeted by unscrupulous movers. Recent data released by
the Census Bureau indicate that only about 40 percent of people age 55
years or older have computers with Internet access in their
homes.[Footnote 30] Although FMCSA has an available hard-copy brochure,
the Web-based outreach efforts may not be fully reaching this
population. FMCSA's planned evaluations of the Household Goods program
do not address the effectiveness of FMCSA's Web-based outreach in
reaching this population.
The Effectiveness of Education and Outreach Programs Is Unclear, but
Programs Seem to be Reasonably Designed According to Theories of
Behavior Change and Industry Groups:
Most of FMCSA's evaluations of its education and outreach programs have
yet to be completed, and therefore little is currently known about the
effectiveness of the programs. FMCSA expects the contracts for the
evaluation programs to be finalized within months and will receive
information from the evaluations once the data are collected and
analyzed. Until that time, what is known about program effectiveness is
largely based on anecdotal information from stakeholders such as
industry associations, as well as a comparison of the education and
outreach programs to the design of other successful programs that have
been implemented. However, FMCSA's education and outreach programs and
marketing materials appear to follow theories and research on behavior
change. Finally, a public-safety group suggests FMCSA followed
reasonable approaches in starting its education and outreach efforts,
however, it would like to see more quantitative evaluation in the
future to help FMCSA refine its programs.
Behavior Theory Indicates Education and Outreach Can Be Effective in
Increasing Awareness and Changing Behavior for Programs that Do Not
Have Regulations Governing the Behavior of Their Target Audiences:
Studies by us, other agencies, and academics show that education and
outreach programs, such as those undertaken by FMCSA, can be effective
in creating awareness of a problem or issue and influencing some change
in behavior. One theory--the theory of reasoned action--explains the
relationship between attitudes, beliefs, intentions, and behavior. In
short, people are more likely to change their behavior if they believe
the change is valued--or that not changing their behavior has negative
consequences--and if they have the necessary opportunity to change the
behavior. For example, one antismoking advertising campaign emphasized
the negative effects of smoking on a smoker's health. Smokers became
aware of the negative consequences, and 26 percent of respondents
indicated that they were more likely to quit smoking based on the
awareness of the negative consequences of smoking. Another study on the
effects of sun exposure showed that countering the mistaken belief that
sun tanning had a positive effect reduced the percentage of individuals
who habitually lie in the sun. These studies demonstrate that
emphasizing the consequences of a negative behavior to individuals can
result in changes to attitudes and behavior, without applying any
specific sanctions.
Based on the theory of reasoned action, education and outreach can have
a positive impact through FMCSA's two programs that have a goal of
influencing consumers to make appropriate choices of motor carriers.
FMCSA's Motor Coach and Household Goods Outreach programs are targeted
toward consumers and do not have regulations governing the consumers'
behavior, thus, according to the theory of reasoned action, gaining
knowledge about the positive consequences of choosing a safe carrier
will affect the individuals' attitude toward this behavior. The change
in attitude will directly affect intention and the subsequent behavior.
Thus, education and outreach campaigns can provide an individual under
these circumstances with the information that is needed to make a more
educated choice. For example, the Motor Coach program follows this
approach by targeting consumers and conveying the negative consequences
of choosing an unsafe carrier. In the case of the Household Goods
program, the campaign conveys the positive consequences of choosing a
reputable carrier in the Households Goods program, although the
elderly, a group potentially susceptible to unscrupulous carriers, may
require a different delivery method other than FMCSA's Web site to
receive this message.
A Link to Enforcement Can Strengthen Education and Outreach Programs'
Ability to Change Behavior:
Independent studies as well as our prior work[Footnote 31] indicate
that the level of enforcement in safety related programs is positively
correlated with safety-belt use, especially when coupled with public-
awareness efforts. According to the general deterrence theory,
individuals must be exposed to law enforcement or receive information
about legal ramifications of their actions before they can be deterred.
The perception or expectation of certain sanctions results in attempts
to avoid committing the offense. Studies show this theory is an
effective model for strengthening the change in behavior resulting from
safety programs. Thus, this link to enforcement would apply to FMCSA's
three education and outreach programs--Safety Belt, Non-Entrant and New
Entrant--that have existing regulations that address their target
audience's behavior.
One study, conducted by the National Safety Council, on the state of
South Carolina's safety-belt program, showed that while media campaigns
immediately increased awareness of the importance of safety belts, the
largest increase in safety belt-use occurred after officers enforced
the requirement to wear safety belts. Additionally, a 2002 study by
NHTSA included data from the state of Washington, which showed that the
baseline percentage of individuals wearing safety belts (81 percent)
increased slightly with advertising over a 4-week period to 82 percent.
Ultimately with the addition of enforcement efforts, the percentage of
those who wear safety belts increased to 90 percent within 2 months.
The same study showed similar results in Texas, where the effects of
advertising alone raised the safety belt percentage slightly, but the
combination of advertising with enforcement caused the number to
increase another 6 percent, from the 80-percent baseline. These studies
suggest that although publicity may increase the awareness of the need
to wear safety belts, some people are unlikely to act on that awareness
unless the enforcement component of the campaign was closely integrated
with the publicity campaign. The results of these studies suggest that
education and outreach alone can increase awareness and encourage the
intended behaviors for FMCSA's education and outreach programs, but
that enforcement can strengthen the result of these efforts.
FMCSA Is Increasing Enforcement in the New Entrant Program and
Acknowledges the Importance of Enforcement to the Non-Entrant and
Safety Belt Programs:
Three of FMCSA's programs we examined, the New Entrant, Non-Entrant and
Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt programs have regulations, such as
a requirement for motor carrier drivers to wear safety belts, affecting
the target audiences' (motor carrier industry) behavior. This provides
the opportunity to use both enforcement and education in programs with
the goal of improving the safety behavior of the motor carrier
industry. The following sections describe how FMCSA has indicated it is
using or will be using enforcement along with education and outreach in
these programs.
New Entrant Program:
Enforcement has been only a minor component of the New Entrant program,
but FMCSA is currently strengthening the criteria for passing New
Entrant safety audits because of concerns of its effectiveness, based
on analysis and anecdotal information indicating that new entrants that
have been notified of the safety audit requirements may not be
operating more safely. In addition, even if a new entrant passes the
safety audit, some carriers are not yet following important safety
requirements, such as having a drug and alcohol testing program, at the
time the safety audit was conducted. This change should establish a
better link to enforcement, in keeping with behavioral research, in
that it will be more difficult for new entrants to retain their
operating status unless they are following the safety requirements at
the time of the audit.
The safety audit has been considered an educational unit, with a strong
emphasis on training new entrants about the requirements to operate in
interstate commerce. For example, the federal register notice that
established the new entrant safety assurance process indicated that the
new entrant process is intended to "improve the safety performance of
new entrants by providing educational and technical assistance" and
required "minimum requirements to new entrant motor carriers to ensure
that they are knowledgeable about applicable federal motor carrier
safety standards." There are few sanctions for carriers who fail
critical areas of the safety audit, although a new entrant might be
subject to a more stringent and detailed review--a compliance review--
under certain circumstances.[Footnote 32] However, the compliance
review process occurs less often with new motor carriers than
experienced carriers.
Although FMCSA's requirements indicate that the objectives of the
safety audit are to educate the carrier and determine areas where the
carrier's compliance might be deficient, in practical application
almost all new entrants have passed the safety audit, and little is
done to follow-up to ensure that new motor carriers correct
deficiencies identified in the safety audits. A new entrant can fail
two of six sections and still pass the audit. Safety audit sections
include areas such as driver qualifications, business operations, and
maintenance records. Over a 2-year period ending in April 2005, there
were 51,681 carriers that passed the safety audit, and only 372 failed,
producing a 99.3 percent passing rate for new entrant motor carriers.
Those who fail the audit must take corrective action within 45 days if
they are a passenger or hazardous material carrier, or 60 days for all
other carriers, or they will lose operating status. Furthermore, for
those carriers who passed the audit despite failing multiple sections
of it, FMCSA currently has no mechanism to ensure the failed sections
of the audit have been corrected before the carrier achieves permanent
status. Although FMCSA sends letters to new entrants about the sections
in which they are not in compliance with motor carrier regulations;
beyond the letter and agency follow-up to obtain proof of insurance,
the agency or its representatives do not determine if the new entrants
have in fact corrected deficiencies identified during the safety audits.
Our analysis of critical factors within the safety audit questions
revealed that over the same 2-year period, about 40 percent of the
carriers failed the "driver" section of the audit, despite passing the
audit overall. This section includes critical questions, such as
whether a carrier's driver qualifications have been reviewed and
whether the carrier's drivers are covered by a drug and alcohol testing
program. Specifically, we found that about 60 percent of the new
entrant carriers that passed the safety audit had failed the
requirement to check qualifications of drivers prior to hiring them.
Checking qualifications means that before hiring a driver a motor
carrier company obtains and reviews information on an applicant's
driving history, including accident and ticket information. In
addition, we found that for the most part, between 27 and 29 percent of
carriers who passed the safety audit had not maintained maintenance
files for requested vehicles. The lack of improvement over the 2-year
period illustrates the importance of determining if the Education and
Technical Assistance Package, which the carriers received prior to the
audit, should be changed to improve these results.
FMCSA officials agreed that the safety audit may not be improving
safety behavior of new entrants, and the agency is already tightening
these requirements. Currently, there is no one question or section of
the audit that can cause a new entrant to fail. FMCSA officials
informed us that the new federal register notice laying out stricter
pass requirements--expected to be issued shortly--identify eight
critical questions that individually could lead to failing the safety
audit, thus providing more incentive for carriers to comply with new
entrant requirements. For example, carriers would automatically fail if
they do not employ a drug and alcohol program, have insurance, or have
the proper maintenance requirements. Carriers who fail the safety audit
and do not correct the deficiencies could lose their operating status
and would be required to correct deficiencies before their operating
status is reinstated.
Safety Belt Program:
Similarly to the New Entrant program, there has been limited
enforcement associated with the Safety Belt program to date. The
finding that 48 percent of commercial drivers wear safety belts,
compared with 80 percent of passenger vehicle drivers, suggests that
commercial motor vehicle operators have thus far been less receptive to
messages in the market place regarding the importance of wearing safety
belts while on duty.[Footnote 33] In light of the studies we reviewed,
an enforcement element might help strengthen education and outreach
programs' attempts to increase awareness of the risk to drivers of not
wearing safety belts and encourage commercial drivers to wear them. It
is reasonable to assume that commercial motor vehicle operators,
similar to private operators, would be educated and informed from the
materials presented in the campaign but that some would not act on the
information unless there was some risk of sanction. The approved plan
for FMCSA's safety belt initiatives includes a third phase of
implementation that calls for increased enforcement. Although the plan
does not specify how FMCSA will enforce federal regulations regarding
wearing safety belts and how FMCSA will work with state agencies to
carry out enforcement--as this program develops, strengthening the
enforcement link may increase the effectiveness of the safety belt
education and outreach efforts. FMCSA officials indicated that this
enforcement effort had begun and included fiscal year 2005 grants to
state agencies that can be used for safety belt education and
enforcement.
Non-Entrant Program:
FMCSA's program plan for the Non-Entrant program indicates it will have
some enforcement component as it is developed; however, specific
information on enforcement has not yet been developed. Literature on
safety programs and experience with similar programs indicates the Non-
Entrant program might benefit from enforcement after non-entrants are
exposed to the message about the importance of registering for a DOT
license when they buy or rent a vehicle for operation.
Industry Associations Offer A Mostly Positive View of FMCSA's Education
and Outreach Efforts, but Public Advocacy Groups Expressed Some
Concerns:
Overall, the industry associations' view is that FMCSA is doing several
positive things in its education and outreach activities. Officials of
the seven industry associations whom we spoke with had regular contact
with FMCSA officials and were familiar with the education and outreach
programs under this review. Many association officials cited direct
contact with FMCSA on industry issues on a regular basis and said that
their partnerships with FMCSA on education and outreach activities were
productive. Specifically, an official of one moving industry
association told us that it shared data with FMCSA regarding complaints
against carriers and often refers complainants to FMCSA for further
information. Officials representing a consortium of primarily state
agencies involved in motor carrier safety, to which FMCSA belongs, told
us that the support FMCSA was able to provide was important to the
implementation of the Safety Belt program. Lastly, some association
officials said that FMCSA was doing a good job with the resources it
has, but others said FMCSA could do more with its education and
outreach efforts if the agency had more resources.
However, one of the two public safety groups we contacted believed that
although the education and outreach programs were based on good ideas,
FMCSA needs to do more quantitative evaluations of these programs. Both
public safety groups also felt that FMCSA should have stronger
enforcement. For example, one group indicated that research has shown
enforcement to increase the effectiveness of education programs and
thus, FMCSA should focus more on compliance and enforcement. Finally,
although industry associations emphasized the positive professional
relationships they have with FMCSA officials, a public safety group
indicated that it is wary about FMCSA's tendency to manage programs in
alliance with industry partners, since the group believes it might
affect the agency's objectivity.
Conclusions:
Uncertainty about how FMCSA's education and outreach activities link to
broader program and agency goals and about FMCSA's New Entrant program
have emerged from our study. FMCSA officials have stated that the
agency's education and outreach programs support department objectives
and that they have used a logic model to show this in the agency's
performance budgets. However, in our review of agency documents, we
found that except for the Safety Belt program, FMCSA has not
established clear links between the education and outreach programs and
agency and departmental goals. For example, the conference report
accompanying the DOT appropriations bill for fiscal year 2005 requested
FMCSA report to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations "a
goal, message, and coherent and explicit program strategy that clearly
and directly link FMCSA's outreach and education program initiatives to
each program's goals" because of its concerns over how FMCSA's
education and outreach activities support agency goals. In the October
2005 response, FMCSA stated that its education and outreach programs
support DOT strategic objectives. The report, however, did not clearly
set out the links between changing attitudes and behaviors that would
describe how these programs contribute to objectives. Such a step would
be welcome, for without an explanation of that link, FMCSA cannot
transparently demonstrate to stakeholders, including congressional
oversight authorities that the programs do, in fact, contribute to
these broader goals. Furthermore, without a clear statement of how
these programs are intended to support these goals, it is difficult to
design evaluations to determine if these programs are performing as
intended or if changes are needed in program design. FMCSA has used a
type of a logic model for its Research and Technology program, making
it clear to all interested parties how its research activities help the
agency achieve its goals. While FMCSA officials say they have used a
logic model for its education and outreach program, this is not evident
in agency budget and program documents. The use of a logic model,
similar to the one used by the agency's Research and Technology group,
in planning, budgeting or program for education and outreach programs
may be beneficial.
Second, the absence of a plan to evaluate how well the information
provided to motor carriers as part of the New Entrant program was
understood and if the information raised awareness and helped promote
safer behavior also emerges as a concern. An FMCSA official stated that
the New Entrant program is still new and has limited data to evaluate.
Further, changes to the program are planned to raise the threshold for
passing a safety audit. Thus, FMCSA is planning on starting an
evaluation of the New Entrant program in 2008. However, without an
evaluation of the effect of education on new entrants' knowledge about
safety requirement, FMCSA is losing an opportunity to obtain
information about the effectiveness of the educational information
conveyed through the program. In addition, FMCSA cannot know whether
its safety audits, which composed almost 7.5 percent of FMCSA's 2005
funding, are having the desired effect; whether the Education and
Technical Assistance Package and the information conveyed during the
safety audits might require some changes to improve their
effectiveness; and whether the safety audits themselves might be
achieving their purpose of improving motor carrier safety. FMCSA has
two opportunities upcoming to obtain information on the effectiveness
of the educational materials and safety audits. First, it could use its
planned contract for evaluation of education and outreach activities to
develop and conduct such an evaluation. Second, FMCSA could include
this evaluation in its plans to evaluate the New Entrant program
beginning in 2008.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
To better demonstrate how FMCSA education and outreach programs
contribute to achieving agency goals, we recommend that the Secretary
of Transportation direct the Administrator of FMCSA to take the
following two actions:
* Ensure that the agency describes and documents how education and
outreach program activities link to and support broader program and
agency goals in a planning, program, or budget document that is
available to the public, and:
* Evaluate the effectiveness of the education and outreach of the New
Entrant program, assessing the extent to which the Education and
Technical Assistance Package and safety audits are helping new carriers
learn and understand FMCSA requirements.
Agency Comments:
We provided a draft of this report to the Department of Transportation
for its review and comment. FMCSA officials, through the DOT liaison,
provided oral comments on a draft of this report. The officials did not
agree with GAO's finding that FMCSA has not linked its education
efforts with its overall goals. FMCSA officials state they have linked
their education and outreach programs to agency goals at a high level
in the agency's performance budgets. In addition, the officials state
that they used a logic model to make this link. We included FMCSA's
view that it has linked its education and outreach programs to agency
goals in our report. However, we did not find this link evident for
most of the education and outreach programs. For example, Congress
requested FMCSA to report on the link between its education and
outreach program initiatives to each program's goal. FMCSA's report to
Congress described the program activities; however, it did not describe
the link between the activities and FMCSA's goals. In addition,
although FMCSA officials stated that they have used a logic model in
their performance budget to link education and outreach programs to
agency goals, the discussion implied a link, but does not describe how
FMCSA's education and outreach activities are intended to change target
audience's attitudes and behaviors that would contribute to meeting
agency goals. However, in FMCSA's fiscal year 2006 performance budget,
we did find and report on a relatively clear discussion of how the
Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt program supported safety
objectives such as reduced fatalities.
In addition, DOT and FMCSA officials were concerned that our
recommendation on documenting the link between education programs and
agency goals was too prescriptive. We recommended that FMCSA expedite
the process of describing and documenting how its education and
outreach programs link to and support overall agency goals in strategic
planning and budget documents. DOT officials said that including this
specific information on relatively small dollar projects--such as the
Motor Coach program--was not appropriate in the DOT strategic plan. In
addition, DOT officials told us that it is not appropriate to include
this level of performance information in budget requests. Since the
strategic plan and the performance budget are not the only
opportunities to detail program linkage to broad agency goals, we
clarified our recommendation to provide FMCSA with more flexibility in
identifying an appropriate planning, program, or budgeting document in
which to describe and document the link between program activities and
goals, so that external stakeholders, including congressional oversight
authorities, can understand how these programs are supporting agency
goals.
Second, agency officials suggested that it is too early to evaluate the
New Entrant program, as we recommended; and they have not developed
evaluation plans because they do not plan on beginning an evaluation
until 2008. However, after over 2 years of implementation and 52,000
safety audits, FMCSA is losing an opportunity to conduct an evaluation
of the educational component of the New Entrant program, including the
Educational and Technical Assistance Package for new entrants and the
information conveyed during safety audits to determine if new motor
carriers increase their knowledge of motor carrier requirements and
change their behavior to better comply with these requirements. The
lack of such an evaluation is a missed opportunity for FMCSA to
demonstrate the effectiveness of its educational information and safety
audits, which represented almost 7.5 percent of its funding in fiscal
year 2005. In addition, we continue to believe this is an important
component of any evaluation FMCSA develops to determine the
effectiveness of the New Entrant program. Therefore, we retained our
recommendation to evaluate the New Entrant program and conclude that
there are two opportunities for doing so--either through contracts for
evaluations of education and outreach programs or through the
evaluation FMCSA is planning to start in 2008.
Finally, agency officials provided technical comments, which we
incorporated as appropriate.
We are sending copies of this report to the Honorable Norman Mineta,
Secretary of Transportation. We will also make copies available to
others upon request. In addition, the report will be available at no
charge on the GAO Web site at [Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov].
If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please
contact me at [Hyperlink, siggerudk@gao.gov] or (202) 512-2834. Contact
points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs
may be found on the last page of this report. Major contributors to
this report are listed in appendix III.
Signed by:
Katherine Siggerud:
Director, Physical Infrastructure:
[End of section]
Appendixes:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology:
To address our first objective and describe the scope and nature of the
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) education and
outreach programs, we reviewed program documentation and interviewed
FMCSA officials at agency headquarters, its Eastern Service Center in
Maryland, and its New Jersey division office. We selected this division
office and service center because they were significantly involved in
all four of the currently active education and outreach programs we
reviewed, which are the New Entrant, Commercial Safety Belt, Motor
Coach Outreach, and Household Goods Outreach programs. We obtained and
reviewed information on FMCSA's plans to initiate an additional program
targeted at non-entrant carriers.
Further, to determine how these programs relate to FMCSA's goals, we
reviewed its strategic planning and performance budgeting documents and
how these education and outreach programs were portrayed in the current
fiscal year 2006 documents. We also discussed the performance budgeting
process with an FMCSA senior budget analyst to identify the agency's
plans for the fiscal year 2007 and 2008 performance budgets. We also
obtained and reviewed the Department of Transportation's (DOT)
strategic plan, which FMCSA refers to in its performance budget. In
addition, we obtained the strategic plan for FMCSA's Research and
Technology group. We reviewed this plan to identify what one group
within FMCSA uses for its strategic and program planning. To identify
other tools used for describing how program activities relate to agency
goals, we reviewed our previous work and identified a program logic
model, originally developed by the University of Wisconsin Cooperative
Extension, as a model that FMCSA could use to clearly describe its
education and outreach programs.
To address our second objective--identifying the extent to which FMCSA
has evaluated its education and outreach programs, we discussed the
status of these evaluation efforts with FMCSA officials and reviewed
proposals and statements of work for current and planned contracts to
carry out program evaluations. We also assessed the usefulness of
FMCSA's ongoing or planned program evaluations to determine if the
evaluations would address how program activities affected target
audiences' attitudes, knowledge, and behavior. We did not thoroughly
assess the evaluation design.
We took several approaches to assess what is currently known about the
effectiveness of programs like FMCSA's education and outreach programs.
Finally, to identify what is known about the effectiveness of the
programs, we conducted a literature review of media based campaigns and
reviewed the structure and evaluation of these campaigns as well as
behavioral theories used in designing the campaigns. We selected two
behavioral theories that were directly applicable to the programs under
this review--the theory of reasoned action and the general deterrence
theory. We then directly compared the characteristics of the two
theories with the characteristics of FMCSA's programs. Additionally,
through our literature search, we also identified additional research
that discusses the importance of the relationship between education and
enforcement in changing behavior. We used this research to help assess
the potential for using enforcement to augment FMCSA's education and
outreach efforts. We obtained aggregated data from safety audit results
from FMCSA's Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) to
examine results for individual elements within a safety audit. We used
these data to identify the failure rates for key elements of the safety
audit. We conducted a reliability assessment of MCMIS data by (1)
reviewing documentation related to system development, (2) interviewing
knowledgeable agency officials, and (3) reviewing FMCSA's internal
controls, and we determined the data was sufficiently reliable for our
use. Finally, we interviewed officials from several motor carrier, law
enforcement, and safety organizations, including the American Trucking
Associations; the National Private Truck Council; the American Bus
Association; the United Motorcoach Association; the American Moving and
Storage Association; the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance; Advocates
for Highway and Auto Safety; and Public Citizen for their perspective
of the effectiveness of FMCSA's education and outreach efforts.
In accordance with congressional direction, we did not extend our
review to include "Share the Road Safely" which is targeted to
passenger car drivers. In fiscal year 2004, Congress transferred
funding for the program from FMCSA the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA). Funding for this program is being returned to
FMCSA in fiscal year 2006. In fiscal years 2004 and 2005, Congress
provided FMCSA with funding for another outreach effort entitled
"Safety Is Good Business." The SAFETEA-LU requires GAO to review this
program by June of 2006.
Our work was conducted in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards, from December 2004 through October 2005.
[End of section]
Appendix II: FMCSA Education and Outreach Programs:
The following provides a more detailed discussion of the five education
and outreach programs we reviewed.
New Entrant Program:
The New Entrant program is intended to ensure that new motor carriers
are knowledgeable about federal motor carrier safety standards and
applicable hazardous material regulations. The program is focused on
the safety audits conducted through site visits to the new carriers'
offices by personnel from the state law enforcement agency, the FMCSA
division office, or a FMCSA contractor.
In 1998, a FMCSA commissioned study[Footnote 34] found that new
entrants to the motor carrier industry have a substantially higher
level of safety regulation violations than more experienced carriers.
Other, earlier research had also indicated that new entrant carriers
had crash rates higher than more experienced carriers.[Footnote 35] The
Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act, which established FMCSA, also
directed the Secretary of Transportation to establish regulations
specifying minimum requirements for applicant motor carriers seeking
federal interstate operating authority and to require that new entrants
undergo a safety audit within the first 18 months of operations.
Effective January 1, 2003, FMCSA established its New Entrant program to
improve the safety of new entrant motor carriers by providing them with
educational and technical assistance as they begin their businesses.
Under FMCSA's New Entrant program, any new motor carrier that registers
with DOT is designated a "new entrant" and will be subject to a new
entrant safety audit and increased roadside performance monitoring for
an 18-month period.
The safety audit's purpose is to provide educational and technical
assistance to the new entrant by reviewing the carrier's compliance
with FMCSA requirements, including driver qualifications, driver
records of duty status, vehicle maintenance records, accident
registers, and controlled substances and alcohol use and testing
requirements. Education and technical assistance information is also
available to new entrants through FMCSA's Web site. A carrier that
passes the safety audit is informed of any deficiencies and what it
must do to be in compliance. A carrier that fails the safety audit has
60 days[Footnote 36] to take necessary corrective action, and
ultimately if the deficiencies are not corrected, its registration can
be revoked. At the end of the 18-month period, if the carrier has
passed its safety audit, does not have an unsatisfactory safety rating,
and is not subject to an "out of service" order or any notice to remedy
safety management controls, the "new entrant" designation will be
removed from its registration, and it will be monitored like any other
carrier.
In most states, new entrant safety audits have been done by both state
law enforcement agency and FMCSA division office personnel. Contractors
conduct safety audits in four states (Florida, Maine, Oregon, and
Wyoming) that are presently doing few or none of their own. When the
New Entrant program began, FMCSA staff performed most of the safety
audits, but states now carry out the majority of these audits, as
indicated by figure 5.
Figure 5: Number of New Entrant Safety Audits Completed by FMCSA and
State Agencies (first 7 months of fiscal year 2005):
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
Non-Entrant Program:
FMCSA's Non-Entrant program will target motor carriers that operate
interstate but have not registered with DOT. The purpose of the program
will be to raise awareness of registration requirements, and to
increase the number of registrations among these non-entrant motor
carriers. This program has not yet begun, but FMCSA officials told us
it will include information disseminated through truck sales and
leasing firms to non-entrants.
The number of non-entrants is unknown, but a FMCSA official estimates
it may be in the tens of thousands. FMCSA officials whom we spoke with
believe that non-entrants may represent an even higher level of risk
than new entrants, because they do not get exposure to FMCSA safety
information through registration. The officials believe that, in
general, motor carriers that do not register with DOT are unaware of
the requirement to do so, rather than intentionally avoiding
registering. FMCSA will be awarding a contract for the development of
the Non-Entrant program; the contract is expected to include a
requirement to identify the target population of non-entrants, develop
informational material, with follow-up monitoring of non-entrants that
are identified.
Commercial Safety Belt Program:
FMCSA's Commercial Safety Belt Program is intended to improve upon the
low rate of safety-belt use by commercial truck drivers. In 2003, a
study commissioned by FMCSA reported that only 48 percent of commercial
truck drivers wear safety belts, compared with 80 percent of passenger
car drivers wearing safety belts. In December 2003, FMCSA established
the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt Partnership with 16 other
organizations, including trucking industry and law enforcement
associations, commercial drivers associations, and safety
organizations, with the goal of increasing commercial safety-belt use
by commercial motor vehicle drivers. With its safety belt partners,
FMCSA produces materials including posters, bumper stickers, and
brochures for distribution at trucking industry shows and events, and
through law enforcement campaigns. In 2004, as part of the Partnership,
FMCSA helped distribute informational brochures developed by the
Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA).[Footnote 37] In 2005, FMCSA
introduced and distributed new materials with the theme "Be Ready. Be
Buckled." for distribution at national and regional trucking industry
shows and events, and through the CVSA-sponsored Road Check 2005. This
was a 3-day truck and motor coach inspection effort in June 2005 that
involved over 9,900 inspectors, conducting more than 60,000 vehicle
inspections in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Through the
Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt Partnership, FMCSA also
communicates its message through information displayed at truck stops
and satellite radio programming oriented to truck drivers.
Motor Coach Outreach Program:
FMCSA's objective for the motor coach industry is to reduce injuries
and save lives through increased compliance with safety regulations and
promotion of safe operations by motor coach owners and operators.
FMCSA's approach is two-fold--(1) reaching out to the industry to
inform motor coach companies of regulations and provide safety advice
and (2) providing consumers with information to help them in selecting
and hiring motor coach services. FMCSA's motor coach outreach
activities include communication with the carriers through printed
material and participation in trade shows, and Web-based information
for the public. For the purposes of our review, we focused on FMCSA's
outreach to members of the public that hire motor coach services.
Motor coaches have been one of the safest forms of commercial
transportation, but an increase in motor coach occupant fatalities
since 2001 led FMCSA to increase its focus on motor coach companies. In
2002, FMCSA developed "Moving Kids Safely" a toolkit of reference
materials targeted to school districts and others who contract for bus
services. In 2004, FMCSA introduced a motor coach safety Web site
within the FMCSA Web site, which provides guidance to consumers on
selecting a motor coach company and allows consumers to access safety
data on specific interstate motor coach companies.
FMCSA's most direct outreach to motor coach companies is through the
agency's Technical Assistance Group (TAG), consisting of about 12 FMCSA
staff with motor coach expertise, primarily in FMCSA's field offices.
TAG personnel staff information booths and give presentations at
industry conventions and events, and serve as agency contact points for
carriers. Also, a FMCSA contractor developed a series of brochures
aimed at motor coach companies that describe guidelines and regulations
for motor coach companies (for instance licensing and insurance, hours
of service, inspection and maintenance, and specific requirements for
operators of school buses). In 2004 and 2005, FMCSA also conducted mass
mailings to motor coach companies, advising them of their reporting
requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Household Goods Outreach Program:
Most households need to hire moving services infrequently, and
therefore consumers may be unaware of what their rights and protections
are in hiring a commercial mover. The overriding objective of FMCSA's
Household Goods program is to help consumers make better informed
choices in selecting and negotiating with a moving company, primarily
through printed material distributed through moving companies and other
sources, as well as providing information through its Web site. FMCSA
also maintains a complaint hotline to receive complaints about movers
from individuals.
The ICC Termination Act of 1995 transferred federal responsibilities
for protecting consumers who use commercial moving companies for
interstate moves to DOT; and the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act
granted FMCSA continuing oversight responsibility over household goods
movers. However, the act did not provide FMCSA with the authority to
intercede on behalf of individuals seeking reimbursement of moving
company charges or recovery of their goods. FMCSA officials whom we
spoke with acknowledge that when the agency was established in January
2000, its mandate was commercial vehicle accidents and fatalities and,
as a result, the household goods industry received little attention.
Also, in 2001, we reported that complaints about movers were on the
rise and that DOT's lack of action had created a vacuum that allowed
unscrupulous carriers to take advantage of consumers.[Footnote 38] At
that time, our report noted that FMCSA had just begun planning to
increase both consumer education and enforcement effort of household
goods carriers.
FMCSA distributes three consumer-oriented publications. Interstate
movers are required by law to provide a copy of one FMCSA publication-
-"Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move" to prospective
customers. A second brochure, "Ready to Move? Tips for a Successful
Interstate Move" is available through the General Services
Administration's Pueblo, Colorado Information Center. A third brochure
"Protect your Memories—Protect Yourself from Moving Fraud" and the
"Your Rights and Responsibilities" publications are available on
FMCSA's Web site.
In March 2005, FMCSA awarded a contract for the development of a
household goods education and outreach program. FMCSA and the
contractor have developed a new outreach theme: "Protect Your Memories,
Your Money, Your Move"; and the contractor will be developing
brochures, presentations that can be delivered by FMCSA staff, and
other materials. In June 2005, FMCSA launched its redesigned household
goods Web page, designed around the "Protect Your Memories—" theme,
which incorporates new content, including a checklist for moving and
information on protecting against moving fraud. In November 2005, FMCSA
officials informed us that they were in discussions with the U.S.
Postal Service to have the Postal Service Web site provide a link to
FMCSA's Web site when registering a change of address with the Postal
Service.
FMCSA officials told us they do not arbitrate complaints that the
agency receives, but they maintain a national consumer complaint
database that is used to identify problem movers for investigation by
FMCSA field staff. Our 2001 report on DOT and FMCSA oversight of the
household goods industry recommended that FMCSA make information on the
number and general nature of complaints against carriers be made
available to the public.[Footnote 39] FMCSA officials whom we spoke
with said the agency intends to do this, but Privacy Act and other
issues need to be resolved beforehand.
[End of section]
Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments:
GAO Contact:
Katherine Siggerud, (202) 512-2834:
Staff Acknowledgments:
In addition to the person named above, Cathy Colwell, Assistant
Director; Colin Fallon; Eric Fielding; Donald Kittler; Sara Ann
Moessbauer; and Elaine Vaurio also made major contributions to this
report.
(542051):
FOOTNOTES
[1] Other activities include working with states and contractors to
enforce federal motor carrier safety regulations.
[2] GAO, Truck Safety: Share the Road Safely Program Needs Better
Evaluation of Its Initiatives, GAO-03-680 (Washington, D.C.: May 30,
2003).
[3] GAO, Consumer Protection: Federal Actions Are Needed to Improve
Oversight of the Household Goods Moving Industry, GAO-01-318
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 5, 2001).
[4] H.Rept. 108-71, 53.
[5] Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity
Act: A Legacy for Users, (SAFETEA-LU), Pub. L. 109-59§4127.
[6] The theory of reasoned action helps explain the relationship
between attitudes, beliefs, intentions, and behavior in that people are
more likely to undertake an action if they believe that the outcomes
are valued and that they have the necessary opportunities to perform
the action.
[7] According to the general deterrence theory, individuals must be
exposed to law enforcement or receive information about law enforcement
before they can be deterred from behavior that may be unsafe or illegal.
[8] Monash University Accident Research Centre, "A Review of Mass Media
Campaigns in Road Safety," May 2004.
[9] We consider DOT's strategic objective of reducing transportation-
related fatalities as one of the agency's broader goals.
[10] We refer to the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt program as
the Commercial Safety Belt program throughout this report.
[11] SAFETEA-LU requires GAO to review the impact state consumer
protection laws have on household goods carriers.
[12] This driver section includes critical questions, such as whether
the carriers reviewed drivers' qualifications before hiring them and
whether the carriers' drivers have been included in a drug and alcohol
testing program.
[13] GAO, Executive Guide: Effectively Implementing the Government
Performance and Results Act, GAO/GGD-96-118 (Washington, D.C.: June
1996).
[14] See, for example: Monash University Accident Research Centre, "A
Review of Mass Media Campaigns in Road Safety," May 2004. This report
incorporated a number of behavioral theories and applied the theories
to 11 studies on media-based safety programs.
[15] GAO, Program Evaluation: Strategies for Assessing How Information
Dissemination Contributes to Agency Goals, GAO-02-923 (Washington,
D.C.: Sept. 30, 2002).
[16] GAO, Program Evaluation: Studies Helped Agencies Measure or
Explain Program Performance, GAO/GGD-00-204 (Washington, D.C.: Sept.
29, 2000). Also see the preceding footnote.
[17] According to FMCSA, as of 2004, there were over 677,000 active
interstate truck and bus companies and about 6 percent of these were
new carriers.
[18] According to an FMCSA official, FCMCSA is updating the Education
and Technical Assistance package.
[19] GAO-01-318.
[20] H. Rept. 108-792, 1414, which refers also to H. Rept. 108-671.
[21] Performance budgets are integrated budgets that tie budget items
such as grants and operational funding to outcomes that will be
achieved by the funding used. The budget requests justify and describe
the intended program outputs and outcomes rather than inputs and
processes.
[22] In October 2005, FMCSA officials informed us that the goal was a
10-percent increase in safety-belt use by 2009. This represents a
change from the goal of a 15-percent increase stated in the fiscal year
2006 performance budget.
[23] The ICC Termination Act of 1995 transferred federal
responsibilities for protecting consumers who use commercial moving
companies for interstate moves to the DOT; and the Motor Carrier Safety
Improvement Act established FMCSA. Also, FMCSA was granted continuing
oversight responsibility over household goods movers. However, the act
did not provide FMCSA with the authority to intercede on behalf of
individuals seeking reimbursement of moving company charges or recovery
of their goods.
[24] The Non-Entrant program has not yet been developed and is
therefore not included in the 2006 performance budget.
[25] U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration, Research and Technology: 5-Year Strategic Plan, Fiscal
Years 2005-2009, (undated).
[26] The Research and Technology report does refer to one education and
outreach activity done by that group--improving driver training.
However, this activity is not part of the programs we are reviewing.
[27] GAO, Program Evaluation: Strategies for Assessing How Information
Dissemination Contributes to Agency Goals, GAO-02-923 (Washington,
D.C.: Sept. 30, 2002).
[28] National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, The Art of
Appropriate Evaluation: A Guide for Highway Safety Program Managers,
May 1999.
[29] Under regulations that implement the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995, federal agencies seeking to collect information from ten or more
persons are required to first obtain approval from OMB.
[30] Data as of 2003, from the U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract
of the United States: 2004-2005, p. 732.
[31] GAO, Truck Safety: Share the Road Safely Program Needs Better
Evaluation of Its Initiatives, GAO-03-680 (Washington, D.C.: May 30,
2003).
[32] A compliance review is a more stringent and detailed review than a
safety audit, and it is triggered if a new entrant is (1) involved in a
fatal or serious accident, (2) subject to a nonfrivolous complaint, (3)
involved in a hazardous materials accident, or (4) on a FMCSA database
that flags carriers with poor safety records for compliance reviews.
[33] As mentioned earlier, FMCSA currently has a planned study to
update the data.
[34] John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, New Entrant
Safety Research Final Report, April 1998.
[35] Thomas M. Corsi and Philip Fanara, Jr., "Deregulation, New
Entrants, and the Safety Learning Curve," Journal of the Transportation
Research Forum, Vol. XXIX, No. 1, 1988.
[36] Forty-five days, in the case of passenger or hazardous material
carriers.
[37] The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is an association of North
American law enforcement agencies that enforce commercial vehicle
safety. Membership includes representatives of all 50 states, all
Canadian provinces, and Mexico.
[38] GAO, Consumer Protection: Federal Actions Are Needed to Improve
Oversight of the Household Goods Moving Industry, GAO-01-318
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 5, 2001).
[39] GAO-01-318.
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