FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 19, 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2019

Trucking industry coalition pushes FMCSA for rulemaking before changing crash metrics

A coalition of 10 trucking-related organizations has petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for a rulemaking if the agency intends to change how it analyzes and publishes data on motor carrier crashes. The petition was filed on June 14, 2019, by the Motor Carrier Regulatory Reform (MCRR) coalition, which includes organizations representing more than 10,000 carriers, shippers and brokers.

FMCSA officials have indicated that they plan to make permanent as a matter of enforcement policy its crash preventability pilot program, which has been in place for nearly two years. As of the end of the first quarter this year, carriers had submitted nearly 11,000 requests for crash preventability determinations under FMCSA’s narrowly defined program since August 2017. However, the program has not been subject to a formal rulemaking process.

In its petition, the MCRR coalition argued that FMCSA must conduct a rulemaking before adopting any permanent program to call balls and strikes on crashes. Publication of preventability metrics would, among other things, constitute a violation of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and federal executive orders intended to protect the industry against bureaucratic overreach in the name of guidance, the coalition told the agency.

A key problem with FMCSA’s approach is that the term “preventability” is an artificial construct that does not equate to carrier fault, much less to a systemic violation of safety regulations. The MCRR coalition argues that the publication of preventability data and metrics would result in increased insurance rates and lost business by carriers that the FMCSA acknowledges are fit to operate and, therefore, fit for shippers and brokers to use. The subjectivity of the preventability standard and its lack of due process suggest that adopting the trial program as policy guidance would hurt the industry, especially small carriers.


About the MCRR coalition
Motor Carrier Regulatory Reform (MCRR) coalition is an affiliation of organizations that frequently weigh in with FMCSA and Congress to promote reasonable regulation and enforcement affecting motor carriers and their business partners. The coalition membership varies slightly depending on the particular issue. For purposes of the crash preventability rulemaking petition the coalition includes:

• Air and Expedited Motor Carriers Association
• Alliance for Safe, Efficient and Competitive Truck Transportation
• American Home Furnishings Alliance/Specialized Furniture Carriers
• Apex Capital Corp.
• Auto Haulers Association of America
• National Association of Small Trucking Companies
• Tennessee Motor Coach Association
• The Expedite Alliance of North America
• Transportation & Logistics Council
• Transportation Loss Prevention & Security Association

Yours truly,
David Gee, Chairman of ASECTT
ASECTT@gmail.com