Transportation Bill Loaded with Safety Initiatives, FMCSA Says

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The highway bill passed earlier this summer directs the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to complete 29 new rulemakings over the next 27 months, including a requirement for a final electronic logging device rule by October of 2013, agency officials said Monday.

In a briefing before the agency’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee, John Drake, FMCSA’s director of governmental affairs, said federal regulators will be busy the next few years not only meeting mandates for new regulations, but also responding to congressional requirements to implement 34 programmatic changes and complete 15 reports.

Between now and early 2013 alone, FMCSA plans to issue a remedial electronic logging device supplemental proposed rule, a proposed safety fitness determination rule, a final unified registration system rule, a drug and alcohol clearing hours proposed rule, and a “patterns of safety violations” proposed rule that will focus on truck and bus executives who turn a blind eye to unsafe business practices.

The $105 billion transportation authorization legislation signed into law by president Obama in July was a “significant bipartisan accomplishment” that will not only fund highway infrastructure improvements, but includes a number of significant safety provisions, FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro told the advisory committee.

“The number of safety initiatives that this bill advances for the commercial vehicle community and for FMCSA to implement is just plain exciting,” Ferro said. “We’re on a roll, and you’ll see just how much we have to do. But most of it was in fact our business agenda, our strategic plan.”

Overall, in most areas the new law maintains or slightly increases program funding levels of the prior authorization bill, Drake said.