In The News
FMCSA proposes new safety fitness determination days after truckers’ protest to lawmakers
WASHINGTON — The DOT's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration today announced a rulemaking proposal that it says will "update" FMCSA's safety fitness rating methodology by "integrating on-road safety data from inspections, along with the results of carrier investigations and crash reports, to determine a motor carrier's overall safety fitness on a monthly basis."
FMCSA Acting Administrator Scott Darling January 11 had announced the agency's plans to release the proposed rule before the end of the month.
"This update will help the agency focus on carriers with a higher crash risk. Carriers that we identify as unfit to operate will be removed from our roadways until they improve," said Darling in the agency's January 15 news release.
The proposed SFD rule would replace the current three-tier federal rating system of "satisfactory — conditional — unsatisfactory" for federally regulated commercial motor carriers (in place since 1982) with a single determination of "unfit," which would require the carrier to either improve its operations or cease operations.
Once in place, FMCSA estimates the SFD rule will permit it to assess the safety fitness of approximately 75,000 companies a month. By comparison, the agency is only able to investigate 15,000 motor carriers annually — with less than half of those companies receiving a safety rating.
The proposed rule "further incorporates rigorous data sufficiency standards and would require that a significant pattern of non-compliance be documented in order for a carrier to fail a BASIC," FMCSA's news release stated.
When assessing roadside inspection data results, the proposal uses a minimum of 11 inspections with violations in a single BASIC within a 24-month period before a motor carrier could be eligible to be identified as "unfit." If a carrier's individual performance meets or exceeds the failure standards in the rule, it would then fail that BASIC.
The failure standard will be fixed by the rule. A carrier's status in relation to that fixed measure would not be affected by other carriers' performances, the agency stated.
The proposed methodology would determine when a carrier is not fit to operate commercial motor vehicles in or affecting interstate commerce based on:
- The carrier's performance in relation to a fixed failure threshold established in the rule for five of the agency's Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs);
- Investigation results; or
- A combination of on-road safety data and investigation information.
Today's announcement comes just days after a group of truckers representing various industry associations and alliances sent a letter to five congressmen complaining that the proposal as first announced by Darling January 11 flies in the face of the latest highway bill or FAST Act.
Language in the act forbids FMCSA from publishing any Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would lead to a major rule until the agency either issues an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) or a negotiated rulemaking, and considers a "regulatory impact analysis" of its repercussions on the motor carrier industry.
The letter was dated Tuesday, January 12.
An FMCSA spokesman declined to comment on the letter.
"Ensuring that motor carriers are operating safely on our nation's roadways is one of our highest priorities," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "Using all available information to achieve more timely assessments will allow us to better identify unsafe companies and get them off the road."
FMCSA estimates that under this proposal, less than 300 motor carriers each year would be proposed as "unfit" solely as a result of on-road safety violations. Further, the agency said its analysis has shown that the carriers identified through this on-road safety data have crash rates of almost four times the national average.
FMCSA stated that it encourages the public to review the NPRM and to submit comments and evidentiary materials to the docket following its publication in the Federal Register. The public comment period will be open for 60 days.
FMCSA will also be providing a reply comment period allowing for an additional 30 days for commenters to respond to the initial comments.
For more information, including a full copy of the NPRM, an instructional webinar, and a Safety Fitness Determination Calculator, visit www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sfd.
The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected].