FMCSA Delays Expected Publication Dates for Minimum Insurance, Speed-Limiter Rules
This story appears in the Sept. 22 print edition of Transport Topics.
Federal regulators have moved back by nearly a month their projected announcements of two proposed rules, one to raise the minimum insurance requirement for interstate motor carriers and the other requiring speed limiters on new heavy trucks, a new Department of Transportation report said.
The proposal to raise the insurance minimum, originally scheduled for publication later this month, has been delayed until Oct. 22, DOT said.
The proposed speed-limiter rule has been delayed several times, most recently projected for Dec. 12, and now is not anticipated until Jan 12.
The anticipated Federal Register publication date for two other major regulations — a proposed carrier safety fitness determination rule and a final drug and alcohol clearinghouse rule — remained unchanged.
The minimum financial responsibility rule has been fast-tracked by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration since the agency released a study in April indicating the required minimum insurance for most carriers is not adequate to cover many fatal and serious-injury crashes.
The current minimum rates have remained the same since 1985. For most interstate carriers, the minimum financial responsibility level is $750,000, while hazardous materials carriers must meet financial minimums of either $1 million or $5 million, depending on what they haul.
A study conducted by the John A. Volpe Transportation Systems Center has provided preliminary support for increasing the current levels of financial responsibility, FMCSA said.
The speed-limiter rule is a combined effort of FMCSA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It was first requested in 2006 in petitions by American Trucking Associations and Road Safe America.
NHTSA requested public comment on the speed limiters and received thousands of comments in support. The two agencies believe the rule would have minimal cost for truckers because all heavy trucks already have these devices installed, although some vehicles do not have the limit set.
So far, the agencies have not indicated what the top allowable speed would be, but ATA has suggested that trucks should be governed at 65 miles per hour.
DOT’s report also said a safety fitness rule, slated for Feb. 10 publication, will scrap the current SafeStat system and adopt revised methodologies to determine when a motor carrier is not fit to operate commercial motor vehicles.
The determination will be based on the carrier’s performance in relation to five of the agency’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program’s Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, an investigation or a combination of on-road safety data and investigation information, FMCSA said.
The clearinghouse rule, scheduled for publication Sept. 16, 2015, will create a central database for verified positive controlled substances and alcohol test results and refusals by truck drivers to submit to testing.
It would require employers of commercial driver license holders and service agents to report positive test results and refusals to test into the clearinghouse.
Prospective employers, acting on an application for a CDL driver position with the applicant’s written consent to access the clearinghouse, would query the clearinghouse to determine if any specific information about the driver applicant would be reason not to hire the driver.
