BROOKFIELD, Wisc. -- One in five carriers right now is at risk of a FMCSA "intervention" if CSA 2010 enforcement began today, with the large majority of that group being big fleets.

According to a study by RAIR, a carrier safety risk management firm in the U.S., small fleets and owner-operators (1 to 5 trucks) are only 10 percent at risk of receiving an intervention from the FMCSA, while fleets with more than 500 trucks -- evidently because they have far more trucks on the road –- are 72 percent at risk.

Under CSA 2010, an "intervention" is the FMCSA’s corrective actions for carriers with sub-par safety performances. Tied to carriers’ peer percentile rank -- safety data that is sorted into seven buckets called BASICs (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories) -- an intervention consists of several increasingly severe steps and penalties, which ultimately may result in the suspension of a carrier’s operations.

The study, based on data from SafeStat and published CSA 2010 methodology, analyzed the performances of more than 60,000 carriers to determine which BASICs were the most likely to put carriers at risk for an intervention if CSA 2010 were to kick-off today.

The analysis shows that carriers in general are most likely to be deficient in the BASIC category of Unsafe Driving and least likely to violate Drugs & Alcohol rules. (Sandwiched in between, in the following order are: vehicle maintenance, unsafe driving, improper loading, driver fitness and crash indicator).

Ironically, though, while they may be least at risk for an intervention, small one-to-five truck carriers are most likely to violate the threshold for fatigued driving, while all truck fleets over 16 trucks were most at risk for a deficiency in unsafe driving.

Six to 15-truck fleets would have the most problem with vehicle maintenance, according to the study.