FMCSA Eliminates 10-Day Extension For Carriers to Appeal Order to Close
This story appears in the Nov. 12 print edition of Transport Topics.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that bus and truck companies no longer will be allowed to request a 10-day extension to resolve an appeal after they are ordered to cease operations for unsafe business practices.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pledged to change the practice last year. FMCSA issued a final rule last month.
Most motor carriers have 60 days to complete the appeal process. Truckers that haul hazardous materials and passenger bus lines have 45 days.
The new final rule stems from a May 31, 2011, fatal bus crash in Virginia, which occurred during a 10-day extension period. The bus operator, Sky Express Inc., had been ruled unsafe by FMCSA.
The crash prompted LaHood to direct the agency to end the 10-day extension practice (6-13-11, p. 3).
“There is no excuse for delay when a bus operator should be put out of service for safety’s sake,” LaHood said in a June 1, 2011, statement. “On my watch, there will never be another extension granted to a carrier we believe is unsafe.”
During fiscal 2011, 55 bus or truck carriers were ordered out of service, and eight 10-day extensions were granted, DOT said.
FMCSA is required by law to review a motor carrier’s corrective actions within 30 days after the date the carrier makes a good faith request that its operating authority be reinstated.
“If the corrective action is determined to be insufficient, the proposed unsatisfactory rating becomes effective and the motor carrier must cease transportation of passengers or hazardous materials in quantities requiring placarding immediately, which would be the 46th day from the date of written notice of the proposed unsatisfactory rating,” the final rule said.
In the case of other truckers, the final order to cease operations would take effect on the 61st day.
The rule said that, if FMCSA issues a proposed unsatisfactory safety fitness rating, the carrier should submit its evidence of corrective actions within 15 days to ensure adequate time for review.
If the evidence is turned in later, “the agency will not guarantee that the evidence will be considered prior to the end of the 45-day, non-extendable window,” the rule said.
Although FMCSA said the new rule would “have no economic impact on the motor carrier industry or significant safety impacts,” Rob Moseley, a Greenville, S.C., attorney, expressed concern that eliminating the extension could cause caseload backups for FMCSA.
“The extensions were to help FMCSA as much as they were to help carriers,” Moseley told Transport Topics. “They’re putting themselves in a box, and they need to be prepared to act within it.”
When an order to cease operations is issued, the stakes are high for a carrier, which could lose all of its customers and drivers during even a brief shutdown, Moseley said.
“You’re creating an environment where people often are going to have to sue FMCSA and try to get injunctions to keep their companies alive while these issues are resolved,” Moseley said. “FMCSA is putting itself in a position where it absolutely has to be right and cannot make a mistake.”
