Principal Technical Advisor for Motor Carrier Safety

David Madsen is the principal technical advisor in motor carrier safety at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center. Madsen received a masters of engineering degree and a bachelors degree in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell University. From 1993 to the present, he has worked on motor carrier safety projects at Volpe in a variety of areas such as program performance measures, program evaluation, motor carrier and driver risk assessment, risk management, and safety program development.

Madsen is recognized for his significant contributions to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) overall goal of reducing large truck crashes and the shared Department of Transportation strategic safety goal of saving lives on our nation's highway. Madsen recently led the design and delivery of an innovative and new FMCSA measurement system, Safety Measurement System (SMS). The SMS is an integral part of FMCSA's top safety effort, the Comprehensive Safety Assessment (CSA) Initiative.

The CSA Initiative is a comprehensive effort to update, integrate, and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of all FMCSA motor carrier safety programs. The SMS identifies specific safety problems of individual motor carriers and CMV drivers based on on-road performance. The innovative approach allows FMCSA to surgically address the safety problems more efficiently and effectively through a series of progressive interventions as well as meet the Congressional mandate of preventing "unfit" motor carriers from operating interstate.