* Missouri - Truckers tell Congress that FMCSA should review regulations for impact on safety
-- The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association gave testimony on behalf of professional and small business truckers before the U.S.A. House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. OOIDA told Congress that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration needs to have a review of existing safety regulations for their effectiveness and impact on highway safety... OOIDA stated that instead of a reasoned understanding and approach to improving highway safety by addressing the key factors behind at-fault truck crashes, FMCSA policy and enforcement is hyper-focused on absolute compliance with the letter of every single regulation – no matter the connection to at-fault crashes... OOIDA contends that under its current methodology, the agency’s safety scoring system inaccurately paints safe, small carriers as unsafe, reducing access to business and opening them up to misguided enforcement activities. Meanwhile, truly unsafe carriers that crash frequently get ignored... The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association was established in 1973, and it's the only national trade association representing the interests of small-business trucking professionals and professional truck drivers. The Association currently has more than 150,000 members nationwide... OOIDA represents the small business truckers that are the majority of the trucking industry. More than 90 percent of U.S.A. carriers own 20 or fewer trucks, and half of all carriers are one-truck operations... The average small business trucker has driven more than 20 years and 2 million accident-free miles...
Grain Valley, MO, USA - Land Line Magazine - April 30, 2015)
* DC - GOP spending bill reignites trucking debate
-- Safety groups have accused GOP lawmakers of using the appropriations process to undo a series of trucking regulations they say makes U.S.A. roads safer, including limits on the length and weight of trucks that have been opposed by trucking companies for years... The GOP measure provides $55.3 billion in funding the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, but the measure also includes a number of provisions dealing with policy issues like trucking regulations... The measure increases the limit on truck lengths to 84 feet and takes aim at a controversial set of scheduling rules that were implemented by the Obama administration to reduce fatigue among truck drivers... Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx sharply criticized Republicans for including the policy riders in the appropriations bill for his agency on Tuesday.... The trucking industry offered a starkly different perspective, saying the provisions that are included in the THUD bill have been on Congress’s agenda for a long time... “They’re the same issues we’ve been talking about for years, and now we’re going to talk about them again,” he said...
(Photo from Wikimedia Commons) -- Washington, DC, USA - The Hills, by Keith Laing - 29 April 2015Labels: infrastructures' funds, road safety debate, rules and regulations
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