Dive Brief:
- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to hold an in-person listening session about possible changes to its safety fitness determination system. The event will take place at 1 p.m. Central time on June 29, running concurrently with the Texas Trucking Show.
- The agency has been considering changes to a list of violations used for the metric (as well as their weightings) and whether to include inspection data into the mix. Additionally, a three-tiered system could be simplified, whereby authorities would only designate fleets in bad standing as “unfit.”
- The listening session will supplement previous feedback, and virtual-only sessions will also occur this month and next. Written comments will be accepted through Aug. 7.
Dive Insight:
The agency put out an advance notice of proposed rulemaking last August, drawing feedback from trucking groups and others about possible regulatory changes to safety fitness determinations.
Trucking groups noted issues beyond the original scope were essential. They called on FMCSA to better sample the industry compared to its current, limited visits and pointed out a lack of uniformity in states’ inspections.
In that previous comment period, different opinions among trucking groups emerged about whether safety technologies should be used in scoring safety fitness ratings. The American Trucking Associations gave room for the possibility to do so after further review, whereas the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association voiced its opposition.
Large carriers represented by The Trucking Alliance also raised issues for how the system can have different impacts between small and big fleets. Larger fleets tend to have more data, which could be used against them unfairly, the alliance said.
The group also recommended a safety rating renewal similar to that of many Canadian provinces. The group stated that “ratings are a snapshot in time. Stakeholders believe these ratings are a current indicator of crash risk, despite many ratings that are several years or even decades old.”
