FMCSA gives trucking interests additional 30-day comment period on safety regs

FMCSA accepted all the NAS recommendations and developed an implementation plan, as required by the FAST Act.

In addition, section 5223 of the FAST Act prohibits FMCSA from using information regarding the SMS percentiles and alerts until the DOT's Office of the Inspector General makes five certifications required by the FAST Act. The OIG has not issued the five certifications. This statutory limitation therefore currently prevents FMCSA from using SMS percentiles or alerts, as was recommended by the NTSB.

As of late October, only about 20 comments had been filed to the docket.

The National Association of Small Trucking Companies (NASTC), Gallatin, Tenn., said the current system today is “very poor.”

“A new direction is worth considering, as long as the new course is simpler, clearer, fairer and faithfully (and) consistently executed by regulators,” NASTC said.

At present, NASTC told FMCSA that carriers subjected to lengthy reviews and found in compliance with Part 385 of the act are left unrated and not identified as “satisfactory.”

NASTC表示立即步骤,将部分mitigate the consequences of the situation of inspected carriers left unrated would be to change “Unrated” to “Licensed to Operate.”

“Such a designation would be more accurate and less open to false interpretation,” the NASTC said.

Specifically, FMCSA is asking for public feedback on:

• the need for a rulemaking to revise the regulations prescribing the safety rating process;
• the available science or technical information to analyze regulatory alternatives for determining motor carrier safety fitness;
• feedback on the agency’s current safety rating regulations, including the process and impacts;
• the available data and costs for regulatory alternatives reasonably likely to be considered; and
• responses to specific questions in the advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM).

Truckers complain that Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) scores are unfair. CSA has erroneously branded objectively safe carriers as unsafe. This has cost carriers business because brokers and the shipping public have presumed that CSA scores reflect reality or that the official misbranding of a safe carrier as unsafe is enough to cause them vicarious liability concerns.

“Plaintiffs’ lawyers routinely use CSA scores as ‘evidence’ against carriers both in court and in settlement demands,” the small trucking companies’ association told the federal government.

Gateway RV Transport, Albion, Ind., recommended FMCSA retain the current three-tiered rating system of Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory and Conditional.

“We believe, having gone through the process of being rated Conditional and getting it upgraded to Satisfactory, that the current three-tiered rating system should be retained,” Gateway RV commented. “If a Motor Carrier is reviewed and has several issues they should not be marked as Satisfactory. However if the issues are not major they should also not be marked as Unsatisfactory so you would need a third status which Conditional fits.”

As a small fleet owner with four trucks, Ashabranner Trucking said the current Safety Rating system has major flaws.

Its main concern, and the aspect it would most desperately want to see changed, is the fact that any flaw on a truck receives an instant violation which instantly reflects negatively on a carrier’s safety rating.

For example, after a thorough and satisfactory pre-trip inspection a driver begins to drive and three down the road a clearance light decides to burn out or an air fitting springs a leak. A DOT officer notices this and pulls this driver over and performs an inspection.

“Without a warning or a chance to have this fixed, the carrier receives an immediate violation,” Ashabranner commented. “This does not seem like a fair system due to the fact that this carrier did not begin their trip with faulty equipment yet, through no fault of its own their equipment becomes non-compliant and negatively impacts their safety rating.”

A better solution would be to give carriers warnings for minor, unforeseeable defects rather than instant violations.

“These warnings can be stored in a national database. For example, after one to three days if the carrier has not repaired the issue during the next inspection, THEN the carrier would receive a violation for not correcting the warning in a timely manner,” Ashabranner told FMCSA.