Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/625735
leading news, trucking market conditions and industry analysis Driver coercion final rule published T he Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration finished its work in late November on a 2012-man- dated rulemaking that makes it illegal for shippers, carriers and brokers to threaten drivers with "economic harm" – loss of business or pay – and puts in place fines of up to $16,000 for those that get caught doing so. The rule goes into effect Jan. 29. Following publication of the rule's proposed version last May, however, comments from trucking groups such as the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the American Trucking Associations, along with com- ments from safety advocacy groups and broker lobbying and advocacy groups, drove changes to the rule's final ver- sion, published Nov. 30 in the Federal Register. FMCSA made two key changes to the rule's draft: (1) Increasing the maximum fine FAST Act: CSA revamp in, carrier 'hiring standards' out T he final version of a long-term highway bill produced by a joint congressional committee includes the industry-hoped-for removal of major components of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Compliance Safety Accountability carrier scoring and ranking program from public view. The five-year $305 billion FAST Act also requires the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to review and, if necessary, change the program prior to making the scores public again, just as the original drafts passed by each chamber of Congress earlier this year dictated. CSA reform was one of the bill's major highlights for the trucking industry, either a close first or second to Congress simply producing the bill and giving itself the chance to pass the longest highway funding legislation in more than a decade. The House passed the bill Dec. 3 by a 359-65 vote, and the Senate followed suit the same day with its 83-16 approval. President Obama signed the legislation into law Dec. 4, and FMCSA promptly removed the CSA scores from public view in compliance with the new law. However, the agency also emphasized that it is not "prohibited from displaying all of the data" – specifically inspection and violation data, as well as the "absolute measures" that underpin the percentile rankings previously available in each Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Category of measurement in CSA's Safety Measurement System, the heart of the program. Here's a look at what other trucking-related matters changed in the new law, which spans about 1,300 pages: IN CSA reform: The law removes from public view the bulk of SMS. The legislation removes carriers' percentile rankings in the seven SMS BASICs and requires FMCSA and the Government Accountability Office to identify the program's faults, develop a plan to fix them and then implement those fixes before the system can go live again. The law directs FMCSA to study issues such as carriers' crash risk and its correlation to CSA scores, CSA's rankings methodology, its data accuracy, incorporating crash fault accountability and how the public uses CSA scores in making business decisions or overall safety determinations of carriers. The final report would be required within 18 months of the bill becoming law. Driver drug-testing reform: The law allows car- riers to drug-test drivers via hair test in lieu of a urine 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, analysis, blogs and market condition articles. Continued on page 14 10 commercial carrier journal | january 2016 CSA reform is one of the FAST Act's major highlights for the trucking industry. Continued on page 19