Broker Complaints, Pressure on PHMSA Mount as Agency Delays Hazmat Data

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said it won’t make current hazardous materials motor carrier information available to the public until 2013, despite brokers’ complaints that its data are rife with errors and aren’t updated fast enough.

The agency told TT on Dec. 8 that its publicly available data, used by brokers to verify whether carriers are certified to carry hazardous materials, are second in line for modernization. Before that’s done, PHMSA plans to update data communications between the agency’s Washington headquarters and its field offices by Sept. 30, 2012.

The Transportation Intermediaries Association is pressuring PHMSA to fix reported data errors and make information available daily to match the timeliness of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s carrier safety data and eliminate inconsistencies. (12-5, p. 2)

“Why does PHMSA need a separate database and two more years to modernize?” TIA President Robert Voltmann asked.

“This is a dangerous situation,” said Voltmann, contending that monthly revisions by PHMSA make it impossible for brokers and shippers to determine whether a carrier’s hazmat certification is current.

Slow updates raise issues of legality and liability, Voltmann added, because brokers are required to use carriers whose FMCSA operating authority and PHMSA hazmat certification both are current.

Earlier this month, PHMSA acknowledged for the first time that the updates were being done only monthly and said the public interest was being protected because the two agencies were sharing current data internally.

“While the joint registration validation data is currently being shared with FMCSA, it is not currently integrated into a single data source that can be made available to the public,” spokeswoman Patricia Klinger said in the statement.

“This is part of PHMSA’s information technology modernization plan, which includes a phased-in approach to improving our external data reporting capabilities and will be completed in 2013.” Klinger added.

“This issue may not be able to wait until they get to it,” said Jeffrey Tucker, CEO of Tucker Companies Worldwide, which offers brokerage services. “They may have to elevate its importance. As more people understand the problem, and as CSA scores begin to damage revenues of carriers who aren’t really hazmat carriers, significant pressure will be placed on PHMSA to fix their database.”

Tucker was referring to the fact that the federal Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, which includes various levels of severity for violations, assigns high levels of severity to hazardous materials infractions.

“The fundamental service PHMSA owes the public is to ensure that entities who daily, all around America, receive and transport very dangerous products in our neighborhoods, are exactly who they say they are,” Tucker said.

Tucker estimated that as much as one-third of PHMSA’s carrier entries have errors or omissions.

Brokers and the public would be better served if PHMSA, which also maintains hazardous materials data for the rail, barge and air freight industries, turns over management of its carrier certification data to DOT’s Volpe Center, which currently sells FMCSA’s carrier data, Voltmann said.

TIA pays $5,000 a year for daily FMCSA carrier updates and has been approached by vendors that  want to buy the group’s spot, which is early in the daily distribution queue.

The interest from vendors in having FMCSA data even earlier in the day is a sign of the importance and value of that information, Voltmann said.

The delay in updating public data prompted Voltmann to tell TT that the group would consider seeking legislation to solve the problem.

“If we have to go to [Capitol] Hill, we will,” Voltmann said. “We want to be sure this fix gets done.”

Asked why database changes haven’t been made yet, Klinger said, “Among many high priorities, PHMSA continues to iteratively increase the functionality and transparency of its information and data.”

“The biggest challenge is data integration and linkage of the diverse data,” PHMSA’s statement said. “These issues will be fully mitigated in [fiscal year] 2013 during the modernization activities.”

The agency’s statement also said its information technology system is being updated as part of a coordinated effort throughout DOT.

The agency statement also said that funding has been committed for the multiyear project, without saying how much.

TIA representatives, including Voltmann and Tucker, met in late October with agency officials and sent agency senior director Ryan Posten a letter outlining requested data-handling changes.

There hasn’t yet been any response from the agency, Voltmann said.

“Maybe PHMSA should only deal with pipelines, and everything that has to do with motor carrier safety should go over to FMCSA,” Voltmann said.