Editorial: Ferro Departs

It’s understandable that many in the trucking industry have mixed feelings about the departure of Anne Ferro, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, who has announced her resignation.

Ferro served five years as chief of the truck and bus safety agency — longer than any of her predecessors.

Under her leadership, and in large part because of her dedication to the job, FMCSA put in place a broad array of regulations, all aimed at making the operation of trucks and buses safer.

TIMELINE: A look back at Ferro's tenure

FERRO TO DEPART: Leaving post Aug. 15

RULEMAKINGS LOOM LARGE: Much ground covered in five years

LAST WORDS TO SENATE: Don't change HOS restart

Sometimes it seems that FMCSA was piling on a beleaguered industry with a new set of rules and regulations every few weeks, and there are many in the industry who believe that trucking needs less regulation — or none at all — rather than more.

We are not among those who oppose all regulation; many of the new rules proposed, written or established on Ferro’s watch are sensible.

Others, such as CSA, the universally used short name for the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, have laudable goals but still need additional work before they are truly effective and fair to everyone in the industry.

Then you have FMCSA’s revision of the driver hours-of-service rule. We’re happy that, after many trips to federal courts, FMCSA maintained a driver’s allowable time behind the wheel to 11 hours from 10 hours.

But we don’t care for the agency’s micromanagement of a driver’s time, and we especially don’t like the part of the rule that requires two rest breaks between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. during the 34 hours needed to reset his or her weekly clock.

American Trucking Associations is continuing to make the point that the mandated sleep-in rule may actually make highways less safe, because it results in more trucks getting onto highways during peak travel hours. That is a situation that could be avoided if drivers were allowed to decide for themselves when to sleep, and to get on the road at night, when the highways are more lightly traveled.

We hope the next administrator will be someone who looks at vehicle safety more as a cooperative pursuit with an industry that works diligently at this critical goal, rather than as a series of hard-and-fast rules that may be counterproductive.