What’s your take on it?

By Timothy D. Brady

Time capsule: Congress passed and President Clinton signed Public Law 106–159 on December 9, the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999. Since January 1, 2000, and the birth of the FMCSA, “Trucking Safety” and trucking regulation have become the agency’s objective. 

There have been at least 29 significant rulings and regulations impacting truckers and carriers within roughly 13 years, while in the 64 years prior to the formation of the FMCSA there were just 13 significant regulations and rulings. 

So what exactly did Congress initially mandate to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as their mission and responsibility? Per the actual act:

[The] Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shall be an administration of the Department of Transportation.

Safety as Highest Priority—In carrying out its duties, the Administration shall consider the assignment and maintenance of safety as the highest priority, recognizing the clear intent, encouragement, and dedication of Congress to the furtherance of the highest degree of safety in motor carrier transportation. 

In other words, Congress gave the FMCSA carte blanche to formulate and implement any rule or regulation it deemed necessary to promote and/or encourage highway safety by the nation’s motor carriers. 

But the question which needs to be asked is, Are all these new regulations really having the intended impact of improving highway safety? Which leads to: Or are they saddling truckers and motor carriers with unnecessary financial and time barriers which have an opposite result by actually decreasing safety? Is the FMCSA focusing too much on reactionary regulation rather than proactive rules which will actually promote safety? 

As an example: In one of the agency’s very first actions on April 25, 2000, it took up the question of an almost 60-year-old regulation, the Hours of Service, in The Proposal to Improve Highway Safety by Ensuring Truck Drivers Get Adequate Rest. This became the first of many shots across the bow of the trucking industry by the FMCSA and several highway safety groups pushing for changes in the HOS regulations. In an FMCSA news release, then-U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater proposed a revised rule for motor carriers designed to improve highway safety by ensuring that drivers of large trucks and buses had the opportunity to get adequate rest. 

As we all know, this opened a Pandora’s Box. Now, over 12 years later, truckers and motor carriers still don’t have any idea of what time constraints under which they’ll need to operate will be mandated. During those same dozen years, HOS rules have been changed, challenged, and changed again. And will most likely be challenged a fourth time, when the newest revised rules are announced in the next month or so. 

It’s a double-edged sword for carriers. One edge is they have no idea what hours and time constraints they’ll be operating under next year. The second edge is, chances are they’ll be even less flexible than the current HOS rules. 

It seems that only the special interest groups are having any impact on what the rules need to be, but the worst part is, the more they change, the more flexibility is lost. And flexibility is the most needed aspect of any safety regulation. Trucking is an unpredictable profession in which every moment of every trucking day, an entire travel plan can change in the blink of an eye. Inclement road conditions, traffic congestion, accidents and road construction can force the best-laid plans to the sidelines. By not being able to turn off a clock and take a break while traffic conditions improve, the trucker, his equipment and motorists around him are actually placed in greater danger; not less. 

This need for flexibility to adjust to the inconsistencies of trucking is paramount to creating a truly safe environment for truckers and the motoring public. 

But what’s the solution to creating a safer work environment for truckers and safer highways for everyone? To answer this question, I  recently conducted a straw poll on the TruckersU.com Facebook page to see what other truckers think is the answer to improving safety. 

The question: With everything the FMCSA is regulating in trucking today, in your opinion, what is the greatest safety threat to truckers that the DOT and the FMCSA are ignoring? 

We received 91 votes from 25 different individuals. Here are the top four vote receivers:

            With 22 Votes:  Safe and convenient parking for truckers for their 10-hour rest breaks.

            With 21 Votes: Driver trainers, training carriers and truck driving schools need more stringent regulations.

            With 18 Votes: Current trucking regulations actually create more dangers than they stop.

            With 11 Votes: Make trucking regulations apply to all vehicles and drivers. 

22 of 25 truckers (88%) polled agreed (which in itself is a major news headline), that providing safe and convenient parking for truckers’ 10-hour rest break is the most important but ignored point in promoting safer highways. 

Also 21 of 25 truckers agree, training of new entry truckers is the one area on which the FMCSA needs to focus their energies. 

18 of 25 said that too many regulations, and many of the current regulations, have a negative effect on trucking and highway safety. 

So in what areas do you think the FMCSA should concentrate its regulatory efforts? 

1. Economic regulations (which would require additional authority from Congress) like fuel surcharges, detention, broker bonds and the like?
2. Should the FMCSA focus more on the initial training of truckers with more stringent teaching and instructor requirements for both schools and carriers?
3. Are they moving in the right direction with the HOS, EOBRs, and CSA enforcement? What needs to stay and what needs to go?
4. What things would you add that we missed on this list?

Please go to http://www.timothybrady.com/contactus.php to send your comments or go to www.facebook.com/pages/TruckersUcom/136304592856 and complete the poll.

Thanks for your input. 

Timothy Brady © 2011     Contact Brady through  www.timothybrady.com/contactus  
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