Our nation’s economy depends on the efficient movement of freight. We rely on safe commercial vehicle drivers to make this happen.
As acting administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, I meet hundreds of safe and dedicated truck drivers who proudly view their work as a lifelong occupation. I recently spent an afternoon with Arthur Cage, a YRC Freight driver who has to his credit 6 million safe miles spanning his 42-year career.
The vast majority of motor carriers and professional drivers understand the importance of safety. But even with a significant focus on safety, there were still more than 3,500 fatal crashes involving large trucks in 2013. It is FMCSA’s safety mission to reduce that number to zero, primarily by bringing unsafe carriers and drivers into compliance with safety regulations or taking them off the road.
We regulate more than a half million carriers, and cannot do it alone.
For that reason, 2016 will be our Year of Partnerships. Our agency will continue to deepen our partnerships with law enforcement, the states, safety advocates and the trucking and motor coach industries.
These efforts are already bearing fruit.
Last December, we initiated the Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Restart Study to assess the impact on driver operations of our regulations on how long a driver can remain on duty before resting. More than 220 drivers across the country helped generate study data from their normal, revenue-producing routes. Our final report is in the works and will be published in 2016.
In 2015, we convened a diverse group of stakeholders for a negotiated rule-making to reach consensus on training rules to ensure new commercial drivers are prepared for success. We plan to publish a proposed rule soon and make it available for public comment.
Other initiatives we are working on include:
- Continuing our work to implement a new online registration system to make it easier for carriers to submit and update information with us.
- Modernizing our inspection platform to provide inspectors at roadside with more accurate carrier and safety data.
- Broadening industry engagement in commercial driver wellness programs that not only produces healthier individuals, but also advances safety for everyone.
T.F. Scott Darling III, Acting Administrator, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration