WASHINGTON Critics of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration CSA enforcement program took their case to Congress last month, charging the program is being misused and harms small carriers.

Republicans on the House Small Business Committee also used the hearing to bash the Obama Administration and the FMCSA for the pending electronic onboard recorder mandate.

"FMCSA needs to get back to addressing their primary mission of safety by providing the industry with accurate and reliable data, and from this data telling the public who is safe to operate and who is not," transportation broker Jeffrey Tucker, CEO of Tucker Company Worldwide in Cherry Hill, N.J., told the committee.

The system has "given accident lawyers jet fuel for lawsuits," he said.

Owner-operator Daniel Miranda, representing the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said CSA is not structured to handle smaller carriers that do not get frequent inspections.

"Once a small carrier gets into the system, the only way they stay relevant is by receiving 100 percent clean inspections, but this is not a real world scenario," he said.

"As a small carrier, and I have seen this first-hand, just a few minor violations can send a score skyrocketing, putting the carrier nearly out of business as it becomes evident no one will employ your services because the system shows you are a risk, even though you operate safely."

Anthony Gallo, a securities analyst with Wells Fargo Securities, discussed research his company has done indicating CSA scores may not reflect either the carrier's risk or the likelihood of a crash.

One Wells Fargo analysis of 200 of the largest carriers found no meaningful statistical relationship between accident frequency and CSA scores for Unsafe Driving, Fatigued Driving or Driver Fitness.

FMCSA responded to that study in March, saying it has much larger studies showing there is strong relationship between Unsafe Driving and Fatigued Driving and risk.

Gallo told the committee Wells Fargo has since redone its study, using 4,600 carriers, and still finds no statistical relation between CSA scores and safety.

By way of explanation, he said there are wide variances in the way states report inspections and crashes into the CSA system.

"Small carriers are likely to frequent a fewer number of states than larger carriers, thereby increasing their exposure to the vagaries of any one state," he said.

FMCSA Deputy Administrator Bill Bronrott defended the program. "CSA is showing great progress without any new regulation," he said.

He said the agency takes care to ensure it protects safety while minimizing its impact on small carriers.

Some 85 percent of the registered carriers in the agencys database have five or fewer power units, and 93 percent of those small carriers do not exceed the intervention threshold in any of the CSA safety categories, he said.

One member of the committee, Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., jumped on Bronrott for the agency's pending electronic onboard recorder mandate.

Landry said the rule will cost $2 billion.

Bronrott replied the rule will save at least that much, but Landry suggested that instead of requiring carriers to get recorders "maybe we should just pay those people not to get on the road."