ATA Opposes New Insurance Rules

Tighter rules on self-insurance aren’t necessary, according to American Trucking Associations.

The organization said it “strongly supports” the Federal Highway Administration’s self-insurance program and suggested that its only problems appear to be with monitoring and enforcement activities and not with the participating carriers.

The agency has proposed a minimum financial fitness standard that would require, among other things, carriers to have cash flow equal to twice the amount of outstanding claims (5-17, p. 5).

“FHWA is trying to promulgate a solution to a problem that does not appear to exist,” Kenneth E. Siegel, deputy general counsel for ATA, said in comments filed with the agency.

Imposing stricter standards will not protect the public from a failing carrier, ATA argued, unless the agency adequately monitors the program.

Siegel described the proposed security and collateral requirements as “arbitrary” and “unreasonable.”

“The rules to be imposed on the carriers appear to be stricter than those imposed on commercial insurance companies,” he said. “The true intent of the revised standards appears to be to make the program less desirable to the participating carriers, rather than to provide any additional protection to the public.”

Siegel said ATA supports the hiring of an outside consultant to help FHWA analyze the financial condition of self-insured carriers.

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