Editorial: One Giant Step Forward

The news that Rep. Frank Wolf has been meeting with American Trucking Associations President Walter McCormick and others over a possible joint approach to regulatory reform that could enhance truck safety is a great step forward.

While details were sketchy at press time, it appears that Wolf (R-Va.) has been conferring with industry and government officials about generating a serious study of alternatives to the existing system of overseeing the industry’s safety.

House transportation leaders Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), Tom Petri (R-Wis.) and Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) are also hot on the trail of trucking safety, with Petri chairing a hearing last week that touched, in part, on the Office of Motor Carriers — significant because of Wolf’s attempts to single-handedly force the transfer of the OMC from the Federal Highway Administration to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Looking at all the possibilities and trying to reach a consensus of trucking, safety groups and regulators is preferable to the “lone Wolf” approach.

The major parties to the talks may surprise themselves, and each other, in finding they have some areas of agreement. Improving safety is good business as well as a duty for responsible corporate citizens. Wolf and others, we believe, are going to find that the trucking industry won’t resist reasonable measures that are decided upon through scientific analysis and dialogue.

This reasoned, cooperative approach to reform also should let the people at OMC, FHWA and NHTSA refocus their attention on their jobs, with much less worry that an earthquake will soon rattle their windows.

For the full story, see the Feb. 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.