I feel a victory lap is in order based on last year’s commentary titled “The Empire Strikes Back — Fighting the Regulatory War on Trucking and Freight Transportation,” but, to mix metaphors, I don’t want to spike the ball before getting into the end zone.
For starters, we have a new Senate majority for Republicans and Sen. Collins of Maine seems intent on getting the hours-of-service restart provisions rolled back to prior rules until the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration can prove that sending more trucks out on the road at 5 a.m. is somehow improving highway safety. Relief should find its way into the next highway bill or perhaps earlier legislation.
Second, the FMCSA has been admonished for its shoddy science associated with CSA Safety Measurement System and is being inundated with calls to remove SMS scores from the website until they can prove the scores are valid predictors of individual carrier accident frequency, which they will never be able to prove because it is not true.
Finally, there is a real chance for a longer-term highway funding bill in 2015. With gas prices plummeting and U.S. production soaring, it’s time to increase federal gas and diesel taxes that have not been raised since 1993. Since that time, inflation is up 66 percent and fuel economy is up 14 percent, and the federal government is spending $15 billion more per year on transportation than it takes in. In exchange for a tax hike, we should insist that the dollars are spent on the interstate highway system or national highway system, and that federal red tape and costly and duplicative rules and oversight are eliminated. The states are far more efficient in building and repairing highways when not encumbered by federal red tape.
Thomas K. Sanderson, CEO, Transplace