Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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Examiner registry attacked by malware A n attempt by an unknown source to plant malicious software on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's database of agency-approved medical examiners is to blame for the lingering outage of FMCSA's National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners, the agency told CCJ last month. "Malware was introduced to the server but was not activated," FMCSA said. "It does not appear that an intentional attempt was made to access or compromise data." The agency took the system offline to do a risk assessment and redeploy a new, more secure system. FMCSA said it is "working diligently to deploy a functional and secure solution as quickly as possible." The agency said in March that no personal information of drivers, examiners or carriers had been compromised in the attempted malware plant. The NRCME has been down now for more than six months and has been operating with limited functionality, allowing truckers to find certified medical examiners by ZIP code. Medical examiners have been asked to maintain files on all examined drivers until the regis- try is accessible. – James Jaillet Congress eyes action on driver pay, broker liability T he U.S. House attached two mea- sures related to trucking for inclu- sion with its version of the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill. The first measure, brought by Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), would block states from enforcing laws that require carriers to provide drivers with meal and paid rest breaks. The legislation was backed by the American Trucking Associations and the Western States Trucking Association. The Denham Amendment was approved by a bipartisan 222-193 vote as part of the FAA funding package passed by the House on April 27. The provision aims to protect trucking companies, including small carriers with only a few trucks, from litigation that could force them into costly settlements with drivers or, worse, put them out of business. Those pushing the provision in Congress say it would mitigate the effects of a judi- cial decision made by the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2014, which paved the way for drivers in California to ring up their carrier employers for thousands of dollars in payouts, said Joe Rajkovacz, WSTA head of government affairs. The Denham Amendment would affirm the federal government's authority in managing interstate truckers' schedules, stating in plain language that states can't enforce upon carriers laws that require employers to provide meal and paid rest breaks for employees. Opponents of the Denham measure, including the Teamsters Union and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, contend it likely will halt attempts at the state level to institute pay reforms for drivers, such as mandated detention pay. The other measure, from Rep. Jim Duncan (R-Tenn.), would institute criteria for bro- kers and shippers to use in hiring a carrier. The amendment would protect them from liability if they verified the carrier met cer- tain criteria. – CCJ Staff LEADING NEWS, TRUCKING MARKET CONDITIONS AND INDUSTRY ANALYSIS commercial carrier journal | june 2018 9 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. The Denham Amendment, offered in various forms in the U.S. House and Senate in the past four years, was revived in late April.