Ensuring that more than half a million registered bus and truck companies transport passengers and commodities safely on our roadways is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s highest priority. Our 1,110 employees, in partnership with state and local law enforcement personnel, work to make our roadways safe, while keeping commerce moving efficiently.
The FMCSA has identified five opportunities for 2015 that leverage advanced technologies to improve the safety and efficiency of interstate trucks and buses. These opportunities include mandating Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs), implementing a Unified Registration System (URS), modernizing roadside inspections, enhancing our Compliance, Safety, Accountability enforcement program, and proposing a Safety Fitness Determination (SFD) rule.
To increase safety, help businesses cut paperwork and improve efficiency for law enforcement personnel and inspectors who review logbooks, the FMCSA will require interstate commercial truck and bus companies to use ELDs to record the number of hours drivers spend behind the wheel.
Carriers, freight forwarders and brokers will also benefit from a streamlined registration process that will consolidate 16 different forms into a single electronic “smart form.” The Unified Registration System is scheduled to be released in October 2015 and will help the FMCSA maintain more accurate information on the entities it regulates.
Modernizing roadside inspection software will give enforcement personnel better and faster safety data on trucks, buses and drivers.
CSA Phase 3 will expand our use of enhanced investigative techniques so we can better identify high-risk carriers and intervene earlier to prevent crashes.
Proposing a new SFD standard will expand the use of crash and roadside inspection data, in addition to findings from our compliance investigations, to determine a motor carrier’s safety rating.
Combined, these priority actions will help reduce the number and severity of crashes involving commercial motor vehicles and keep commerce flowing safely — something in everyone’s business interest.
T.F. Scott Darling III, Acting Administrator, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration