FMCSA Takes Hart
He was advised – jokingly — to wear body armor. It seems that several members of the House subcommittee on Ground Transportation were worried about the slings, arrows and heavy artillery assault he could expect from opponents of the proposed changes to the hours-of-service rules.
Clyde J. Hart Jr., acting deputy administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, not only survived that June hearing, he was complimented for not bringing an entourage with him to help respond to criticisms of the rules.
“Consensus-building and facilitation” are keys to Hart’s ability to survive in Washington, according to Lynch, who has known Hart for almost 20 years. He doesn’t so much defend the hours-of-service rules as defend everyone’s right to have an opinion about them, Lynch says.
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 |  Michael James - Transport Topics |
| Clyde Hart Jr. left the relatively quiet maritime world to run the federal trucking agency. |
Nevertheless, those who know Hart can’t help but be perplexed about why someone with 25 years of government service would leave the relative quiet of the Federal Maritime Administration to leap into the hours-of-service storm raging in its sister trucking agency. “I think he needs to have his head examined and sanity checked for taking this job,” says Tim Lynch, chief executive officer of the Motor Freight Carrier Association.
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