Effect of Compliance Reviews on Out-of-Service Rates of Region 5 Carriers: A Study

This Phase II study involved studying the short-term and long-term effects of the Compliance Review (CR) programs \nconducted in the Region 5 states of Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Illinois on the Out-of-Service (OOS) \nrates of interstate freight-carriers based in those states. \nA preliminary analysis of the inspections data revealed low OSS rates based on inspection records--across all level of \ninspection--for the years 1993-94, indicating defective collection/interpretation of data and thereby invalidating any OOS rate \nanalysis for this time period. Also, it was found that Level 1 and 2 inspections together constitute nearly 80 percent of all \ninspections records, thus marginalizing the effect of the other levels of inspection on the final results of this analysis. \nThe results of both the short-term and long-term effects of OOS rate analysis suggest an overall positive effect of the \nCompliance Review program on the reduction of OOS (Event and Violation) rates of the carriers. These results are consistent \nover the rest of the time period (1995-97) and across three levels of inspection (Levels 1, 2, and 3). The conclusions drawn \nabout the nature of the effects of a Compliance Review could be much better validated if the currently spurious inspections data \nfor the years 1993-94 were restored, or a fresh analysis using later available data (1997-99) were carried out based on the same \nalgorithms.