FMCSA reaching for more power to shut-down trucks

Quimby Mug Bayou Florida Headshot

Trucking companies will face greater scrutiny if the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration enacts its recently proposed safety regulations which give the agency more power to shut down trucking companies that it believes are too dangerous for the nation’s highways.

Beginning today, the public has 60 days to comment on proposed safety laws that FMCSA says uses new methods to identify unfit motor carriers based on the following:

Carrier’s on-road safety data in relation to five of the Agency’s seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs); an investigation; or a combination of on-road safety data and investigation information.

“The intended effect of this action is to more effectively use FMCSA data and resources to identify unfit motor carriers and to remove them from the nation’s roadways,” FMCSA states in its 267-page report dubbed Carrier Safety Fitness Determination.

Under its new rules, FMCSA says it would have found 3,056 unfit trucking businesses in 2011, or about two-and-half-times more companies than were originally sidelined by the agency that year.

Comments must reference docket number FMCSA-2015-0001 and can be submitted in only one of the following ways: visit https://www.regulations.gov/ and follow the instructions for submitting comments on the Federal electronic docket site; fax 1-202-493-2251; mail: Docket Services, U.S. Department of Transportation, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590-0001; or hand delivery: Ground Floor, Room W12-140, DOT Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.