Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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LEADING NEWS, TRUCKING MARKET CONDITIONS AND INDUSTRY ANALYSIS F ive House Republicans intro- duced a bill that would require shippers, brokers, freight forwarders and others to vet carriers prior to hiring them. The bill also would aim to remove the public assumption that carrier rankings in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Compliance Safety Accountability program should be used as a tool to hire carriers. The bill would require those hiring carriers to verify (1) their registration status with the U.S. Department of Transportation, (2) they hold the proper amount of liability insurance and (3) they have not been given "unsatisfactory" safety ratings. A similar bill introduced last year did not make it out of committee. H.R. 1220 was introduced Feb. 26 by Reps. John Duncan (R-Tenn.), Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.). The quintet billed the measure as one that would "enhance interstate commerce by creating a national hiring standard for motor carriers." U .S. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) called for reforming the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, saying the agency has ignored Congress, the Government Accountability Office and members of the trucking industry. Fischer's remarks came last month dur- ing and after a hearing on Capitol Hill of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security, which she chairs. She specifically criticized FMCSA's handling of the 34-hour restart rule and the continuance of mak- ing Compliance Safety Accountability scores available for public view. Fischer said she plans to introduce reform legislation to make FMCSA more inclu- sive of Congress and industry stakeholders and increase its transparency. Fischer also said she will author legislation to require the agency to conduct more robust and comprehensive cost benefit analyses of proposed regula- tions. In her opening remarks, Fischer said, "Some of the FMCSA's actions over the past years challenge our shared goal of enhancing safety. "For example, the FMCSA issued the final 34-hour restart rule in 2013 with complete disregard for congressionally mandated requirements for the study of the rule's impact. When the study was eventually issued several months late, the sample size was not representative of this diverse industry. In addition, serious concerns were raised about the rule's perverse impact on safety, because in effect it pushed drivers onto the roads during workers', students' and families' morning commutes. "In 2014, the GAO inves- tigated the methodology behind FMCSA's Compliance Safety Accountability pro- gram. Inaccurate CSA scores publicly available online have cost companies contracts and raised insurance rates. All of this has occurred without a clear correlation to increasing highway safety. "When confronted with these findings, FMCSA com- pletely disregarded GAO's recommendations to address flaws in CSA's implementation. Major stakeholders, including law enforcement, requested that FMCSA remove CSA scores from public view. "Congress must reform the agency to ensure higher levels of trust, collaboration and ultimately more effective regulations to keep our nation's roads safe," said Fischer. The ranking member of the subcom- mittee is Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who mentioned how the high-profile acci- dent involving comedian Tracy Morgan in June 2014 Scan the QR code with your smartphone or visit ccjdigital.com/news/subscribe-to-news- letters to sign up for the CCJ Daily Report, a daily e-mail newsletter filled with news, analy- sis, blogs and market condition articles. COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | APRIL 2015 11 House bill would clarify CSA's role in hiring carriers Senator wants Congress to overhaul FMCSA Continued on page 14 T.F. Scott Darling, acting administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admin- istration, took over following former Administrator Anne Ferro's departure. Part of the safety enhancements, the lawmakers said, would remove the "confusing and conflicting vagaries" of CSA's BASIC rankings. Continued on page 14