Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/614640
B ill Quade is in charge of implementing new programs and regulations for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administra- tion. From his vantage point, the highway bill now moving through Congress will test the agency's limited resources. Quade, the associate administrator for en- forcement and program delivery at FMC- SA, gave a presentation and answered ques- tions from attendees at the CCJ Fall Sym- posium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Nov. 18. He began by noting the progress made towards the agency's safety goals. In 2013, 4,000 people died in commercial motor vehicle crashes. A decade ago, fatalities numbered more than 5,000. "I fi rmly believe in the goal and the mission of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to save lives and reduce injuries and crashes in com- mercial motor vehicles," he stated. "I fi rmly believe that steps we are taking are steps towards that progress." Turning to the highway bill, Quade questioned why Compliance, Safety, Ac- countability scores will be removed from public view until regulators rework the program. If CSA scores are not public, carriers will have to fi eld a lot of informa- tion requests from shippers and insurance brokers. The FMCSA had 72 million hits on its websites last year, he said, and predicted that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) offi ce may be overwhelmed. At any rate, the agency will continue to use CSA scores to identify carriers for interventions as it makes new proposals and changes to the program. One change underway now is the "utilization factor" and segmenting of the Hazmat BASIC. The agency is going to give carriers a pre- view of what these changes will do to their CSA scores "in a couple of weeks," he said. The highway bill also requires FMCSA to implement a new program to assign crash preventability. The idea is to exclude crashes deemed as non-preventable from carriers' CSA scores, such as when a vehicle rear-ends a commercial vehicle. Quade believes the agency will have a "diffi cult time" implementing this because of limited resources. FMCSA will have to review approximately 120,000 commercial vehicle crashes per year, and "we are not going to do in-depth accident reconstructions because that is economically prohibitive." He warned of unintended conse- quences for the government assigning crash preventability. The conclusions "may get used out of context," he said, like possibly being used as evidence in civil lawsuits brought against carriers. The House of Representatives' BEST 2 www.FlatbedTruckingJobs.com January 2016 Highway bill presents tough challenges for FMCSA PRACTICES by Lucas Deal