WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration told trucking industry leaders Tuesday the agency was within its rights to ban texting by commercial drivers through a reinterpretation of existing rules, but that more explicit bans were on the way.
“We were clearly within our authority,” FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro said at American Trucking Associations’ annual winter leadership meeting here.
While ATA supported the ban, the agency had been criticized in some quarters for issuing the guidance last month on the grounds states may not be able to enforce the ban.
“Is it tough to enforce? You bet. Did we know that going in? Absolutely,” Ferro said. “It’s tough to enforce [a ban] under any context, but that doesn’t relieve us from the obligation to say that ‘This is an unsafe behavior and you hold the keys to change it,’ and make sure that everyone understands that it is also illegal.”
Ferro said that the next step in the process would be a rule explicitly banning text messaging by truck drivers, telling ATA leaders the agency was already in the process of writing the rule and “it should be on the street before long.”
In addition, Ferro said that FMCSA would continue to have a “broader distracted driving discussion,” that would encompass looking at other in-cab technologies, adding that she “certainly understands the concerns that the industry has about the use of technology.”
“We’re not going to step down on that willy-nilly,” she said.
By Sean McNally
Senior Reporter
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