Ferro Says FMCSA Is Determined to Weed Out Bad Drivers, Carriers

BELLEVUE, Wash. — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is continuing to develop new tools to weed out bad drivers and motor carriers, the nation’s top trucking regulator told a group of law enforcement officials and inspectors meeting here.

In a speech suggesting a re-energized, get-tough regulatory stance, Anne Ferro, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, touted the agency’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program; its new hours-of-service rule; and several other new programs and upcoming rules as tools that will reduce crashes.

“We are absolutely committed — with all of you — to ensure that North America is, in fact, the safest place to travel in the world,” Ferro said. “And we’re going to get there and only because of the commitment that’s in this room.”

Ferro spoke April 24 at a session of the 7th Annual FMCSA/Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program Leadership Meeting and 2012 Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Workshop.

Ferro’s regulatory update speech paralleled some comments made in conference sessions a day earlier in which two top FMCSA enforcement officials outlined the agency’s top priorities for this year.

Ferro cited three examples of the agency’s efforts to get high-risk drivers and carriers off the highways.

First, she said a plan to propose a drug and alcohol clearinghouse by early 2013 will be an essential tool for employers to avoid hiring drivers who may have had a positive drug or alcohol test.

The planned rule would give carriers the knowledge to hire only the “best and most qualified drivers,” she said.

Likewise, the agency’s pre-employment screening program already is ensuring that carriers have the tools to avoid hiring unqualified drivers, and the agency’s “imminent hazard” authority is helping to rid the highways of high-risk drivers and carriers, she said.

The imminent-hazard regulation allows FMCSA to shut down a carrier and take it to civil court when the company’s continued operation would “present a substantial likelihood that death, serious illness, severe personal injury or a substantial endangerment to health, property or the environment.”

“We’re making sure we’re getting the bad actors off the road, giving them a chance to either rehabilitate, improve or just stay off the road altogether,” Ferro said.

She also outlined the provisions contained in the agency’s new hours-of-service rule and its plan to issue a new supplemental rule requiring all interstate carriers to have electronic logging devices on their trucks.

An appeals court rejected the agency’s earlier final EOBR rule because it did not ensure the device would not be used to harass drivers.

“The next phase for the agency is to press ahead with the current EOBR [notice of proposed rulemaking] with modifications, based on what we learn about harassment from the listening sessions and from some additional research that we’ll be conducting,” Ferro said. “We’ll also incorporate technical standards, and we’ll incorporate a third piece, which is the supporting documents required once an EOBR mandate is in place.”

Ferro also said the agency has been following and working on sleep-apnea guidance recommendations from FMCSA’s Medical Review Board and its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee. The two committees earlier this year sent the agency recommended guidance that the medical community could use to identify and treat drivers with obstructive sleep apnea.

However, she said FMCSA “last week had an ‘oops’ ” on April 20, when it mistakenly published a proposed sleep apnea rule.

“We are working on those recommendations, and last week, with a clerical error, they actually got published,” Ferro said. “For those who didn’t see it, we did pull that back. It’s not ready for prime time, but we do expect to publish that guidance later this year and give everybody plenty of time to comment on it.”

In addition, a new medical examiners certification rule issued earlier this month will require that physicians who perform driver physical exams must be trained, tested, certified and entered into FMCSA’s registry, effective in 2014.

“The registry will be fully open to testing establishments to get themselves registered this summer and for medical examiners to begin their registration process after they’ve had their training and done their testing by August,” Ferro said.