Editorial: Government Erupts

With the end of 2015 coming up fast, the dam broke on the reservoir of governmental inactivity and the executive and legislative branches produced a torrent of trucking news. You can see the result of the rushing water through this edition of Transport Topics.

For starters is the FAST Act, passed by Congress and signed by the president. It is the first real long-term surface transportation plan since SAFETEA-LU expired in the fall of 2009.

Within the Department of Transportation, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced its final rule on in-cab electronic logging devices, closely following its anti-coercion rule on drivers and a statement on seat belt usage by passengers. Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants trucks to have sturdier underride guards.

In addition to authorizing $305 billion for five years worth of transportation programs, FAST Act also takes aim at some DOT policies. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration learned it will have to back off its plans to regulate the wetlines hardware under tank trailers for petroleum products, and FMCSA has yanked some of its safety scores for individual carriers.

While it is always tempting to chide Congress for its three-day-a-week schedule, there’s also reason to worry about lots of activity. Fans of limited government raise an excellent point in counseling: do less, but if you must do something, be careful to do it well.

On balance, we welcome this spasm of activity. Beyond all else, the enactment of FAST Act demolishes the self-destructive tendency on road building of stumbling through an obstacle course of short-term patches. There were 36 of them since SAFETEA-LU, and there won’t be a 37th.

State highway administrators can now plan their actions sensibly. We would have liked to have seen a sixth year, more money authorized and dedicated transportation-related funding for transportation projects. We, of course, like diesel and gasoline taxes as obvious user fees for highway work, but we defy anyone to argue that Federal Reserve fee grabs and Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales make sense.

Still, an end to the patches is the big prize.

As for the electronic logging device mandate, that is entirely welcome.

“This regulation will change the trucking industry — for the better — forever. An already safe and efficient industry will get more so with the aid of this proven technology,” said American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves.

Now it’s on to the omnibus spending bill for the fiscal 2016 budget, which could be another vehicle for a wide array of policy issues, and maybe another mad dash.