Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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FMCSA: Driver info still safe in online hack T he Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said last month that no personal information on drivers was exposed in a recent attempt by an unauthorized party to access the agency's National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners. The registry, which is used by drivers to find U.S. Department of Transportation-certified medical examiners, now has been down for nearly five months. A simple search by ZIP code remains available. FMCSA said in December there had been "unauthorized access" to the system, prompting the site's outage. The agency has not provided further details, nor has it provided a timeline for when the site will come back online. However, it said that it is "conclusive" that no personal infor- mation was exposed. "There was an attempt by someone to com- promise the [registry], but it was unsuccessful," FMCSA said. The issue has forced examiners to backlog exam results until the site enables them to upload the results to the website. Collin Mooney, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, said the outage should not cause issues during roadside inspec- tions since enforcement officers use CDLIS, not the registry, to verify medical certificates. – James Jaillet Bill would allow drivers to pause 14-hour clock for up to three hours A U.S. House bill would allow drivers to take one break per day of up to three hours that would not count against their 14-hour on-duty allotment. The bill filed in late March mirrors a petition filed by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association that calls for a pause button for a driver's daily 14-hour clock of up to three hours and the removal of the mandatory 30-minute break required by current hours-of- service regulations. The Responsible and Effective Standards for Truckers Act (REST Act) still would require drivers to log 10 consecutive off-duty hours before beginning their next 14-hour on-duty period. The legislation filed by Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) is backed by OOIDA. Its filing comes as FMCSA is studying adding HOS flexibility via split-sleeper berth options, but the research and regulatory process to institute such changes likely would take years should the agency decide to pursue it. Last March, under a congressional directive, FMCSA removed the requirement that drivers' 34-hour restarts include two 1-5 a.m. peri- ods. Its removal was a core component of an HOS overhaul instituted in July 2013, but the mandatory 30-minute break was added at that time and remains in place despite other portions of the rule being nixed by Congress. – James Jaillet LEADING NEWS, TRUCKING MARKET CONDITIONS AND INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Under the U.S. House bill, drivers would be able to pause their 14-hour on-duty clock for up to three hours a day. FMCSA said no personal information was exposed in a recent attempt to hack its National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners. commercial carrier journal | may 2018 9 Scan the QR code with your smartphone or visit ccjdigital.com/ news/subscribe-to-newsletters to sign up for the CCJ Daily Report, a daily e-mail newsletter filled with news, analysis, blogs and market condition articles.