Later this month, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is set to host an in-person listening session focused on safety fitness determinations for motor carriers.
This public session will take place from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Central Time on June 29 at the Texas Trucking Show in Houston. According to a notice slated for publication in the Federal Register on Friday, June 7, FMCSA made the announcement.
Along with the in-person session at the NRG Center in Houston, FMCSA also plans to hold two online-only listening sessions in June and July to discuss safety fitness determinations.
These sessions aim to develop an updated methodology for determining when a motor carrier is unfit to operate commercial vehicles.
“Specifically, the agency would like to hear from members of the public on issues of concern relating to safety fitness determination, including, for example, the three-tiered rating system (Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory, Conditional) versus changing to a proposed single rating only when a carrier is found to be unfit,” FMCSA wrote in the notice.
Additionally, the agency intends to cover topics such as:
- Using inspection data and FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System
- Including driver behavior in safety fitness determinations
- Updating the list of safety violations used to calculate ratings
- Modifying the significance assigned to particular violations, with an emphasis on increasing the weight for unsafe driving violations
The Houston listening session is open to the public, and attendees will have the opportunity to comment. Pre-registration for the listening session is not necessary, but registration is required for the Texas Truck Show. Information on how to register for FMCSA’s online listening sessions concerning safety fitness determinations will be announced shortly.
OOIDA argued against the inclusion of technology in enhancing a motor carrier’s rating.
“(The) safety fitness determination should not factor in motor carriers’ adoption and use of safety technologies when rating them,” OOIDA noted. “Simply adopting and using safety technologies does not guarantee improved safety performance. We believe that rewarding carriers for merely adopting safety technologies, without actual improvements in safety performance, would only benefit those who can afford expensive new technologies.”
Source: Land Line
