Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/339485
LEADING NEWS, TRUCKING MARKET CONDITIONS AND INDUSTRY ANALYSIS A s the Highway Trust Fund's insolvency looms, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced a high- way funding plan that would repeal the federal gas tax in favor of other funding options, like taxing oil barrels and indexing the diesel tax to infla - tion and fleet fuel economy. DeFazio's Repeal and Rebuild Act is designed to be a long-term solution that he says would create jobs, repair infrastructure and "break the trans - portation funding impasse that has plagued Congress for years." The act would: t3FQFBMUIFGFEFSBMHBTUBY t*ODSFBTFUIFUBYPOBCBSSFMPGPJM that is processed into gasoline to $6.75 and index it to construction DPTUJOGMBUJPOBOEGMFFUGVFMFDPOPNZ t*OEFYUIFEJFTFMUBYUPDPOTUSVDUJPO DPTUJOGMBUJPOBOEGMFFUGVFMFDPOPNZ t#POEUIFOFXSFWFOVFUPCBDLGJMM UIF)JHIXBZ5SVTU'VOETIPSUGBMMBOE t4VQQPSUBCJMMJPOTJYZFBS reauthorization. *OUIFCJMMTGJSTUZFBSJUXPVMESBJTF MFTTUIBOUIFDFOUHBTUBYCVU provide potential short-term relief to buyers, DeFazio said. #VUUIFCBSSFMUBYXPVMECF indexed to the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway $POTUSVDUJPO$PTU*OEFYBOEUP CAFE standards with the goal of mitigating losses that could be seen from higher fuel economy – something the current gas tax does not do. – Kevin Jones T he Senate's version of the annual appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Transportation contains language that would prevent the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from dragging its feet in producing a final electronic logging device mandate rule. The bill also sets a deadline for the agency to produce its long-awaited Safety Fitness Determination rule, the timetable for which FMCSA has continued to push back. The Senate's Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill gives the agency $592.3 million in funding for the 2015 fiscal year and came out of the Senate's Appropriations Committee June 5, when an amend- ment was added to suspend the 2013 hours-of-service rule for at least a year until more study can be done to justify its restart provisions. (See page 10.) If passed, the Senate bill would require FMCSA to publish a final ELD rule by Jan. 30, 2015. The current MAP-21 highway funding bill required the agency to produce a proposed rule by Sept. 30, 2013, but the agency didn't publish the proposal until March of this year. The 90-day public comment period on the rule ended June 26, after which the agency began work on a final rule. The agency usually produces a final rule within a few months of the end of public comment periods on proposed rules, and the Jan. 30 deadline would give the agency seven months to publish its final ELD rule. The bill's language wouldn't seem to set an unrealistic target, but FMCSA has missed several self-set timeframes on its calendar. Citing "excessive" delays on a Safety Fitness Determination rule, the bill also would require FMCSA to initiate a rulemak- ing "no later than December 2014." The SFD rule is the agency's next step in its Compliance Safety Accountability program. The rule would allow the agency to use a similar data set it uses in CSA's Safety Measurement System rankings to produce an actual fitness score for car- riers. It then could use the scores to target carriers for intervention. The THUD bill text calls the SFD rule "the corner- stone of CSA," and that until the rule is implemented, "FMCSA continues to rely on a rating and enforcement system that fails to place sufficient emphasis on both driver and vehicle qualifications, thereby compromising safety on our nation's highways." In its most recent monthly report on sig- nificant rulemakings, DOT projected Dec. 17 as the publication date for the SFD rule, which was a delay from the prior month's Sept. 16 projected date. Sept. 16, how- ever, also was a delay from months prior: At points last year, the rule was projected to be published in May 2014. – James Jaillet Scan the QR code with your smartphone or visit ccjdigital.com/news/subscribe-to-news- letters to sign up for the CCJ Daily Report, a daily e-mail newsletter filled with news, analy- sis, blogs and market condition articles. COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | JULY 2014 7 The deadline in the Senate bill – Jan. 30, 2015 – would give the agency seven months to publish its final ELD rule. House bill would nix gasoline tax, index diesel tax to fuel economy Senate bill sets e-log, carrier fitness deadlines