WASHINGTON -- The national association that represents independent truckers has filed a legal challenging to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Pre-Employment Screening Program.

The lawsuit asserts the program violates the rights of over-the-road truck and bus drivers.

Just days after the suit was filed, the FMCSA announced it is planning to make changes in its handling of data in the program, which is frequently simply referred to as PSP.

The program gives bus and truck operators access to the driving records of job applicants, including five years of crash reports and three years of roadside inspections. Drivers also have access to the information.

The FMCSA is considering four changes to the program:

Exclude financial transactions from the records.

Revise a category of records identified as "Access Transaction Records" to clarify that the information is kept on the users who have access to the system for pre-employment screening.

Provide notice of transactions routinely initiated by service providers.

Provide notice when an operator or applicant requests his own record.

In its suit, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association said that under the program, drivers can be in effect found guilty of safety violations before they get due process in court.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, also said that data in the system is not always accurate and is difficult to correct.

The OOIDA cited the experience of three drivers who were cited for alleged violations. The drivers challenged their citations in court and were either acquitted or had their cases dismissed, the association said.

But when they tried to use the agencys DataQ system to get their records corrected, the agency refused to make the changes, the OOIDA said in its suit.

"By refusing to accept the determination by a court, the FMCSA has in essence made state law enforcement agencies the final judge and jury on all citations," said Jim Johnston, OOIDA president.

"This can ultimately threaten business opportunities and income."

OOIDA wants the court to tell the agency to purge from the database any inspection reports that allege violations, if a court has not ruled on the drivers guilt.

It also wants purged any reports concerning violations the agency has not found to be "serious driver-related violation(s)."

In addition, the association wants the pre-employment screening program to tell employers if a violation that shows up in the database is being disputed by the driver, and why the driver is challenging the information.

One motorcoach industry executive who closely monitors actions by the FMCSA said he was surprised that a lawsuit challenging aspects of the screening program had not been filed earlier.

"Im just surprised it took so long," he said. "Prior to CSA, non-adjudicated violations had little importance and were mostly aggravations.

"A drivers violation did not appear on his record until he was convicted; yet, a violation can show up in the (Safety Measurement System) and (Pre-Employment Screening Program) almost immediately without judicial review.

"Combined with accident causation, its getting easier to believe a federal judge somewhere is going to direct the FMCSA to ban CSA/SMS from public view," the executive said.