A group of shippers, brokers and small motor carriers told a federal court that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new carrier safety ratings are “confusing, ever-changing, mercurial and capricious in their effects on carriers.”
The group said in a legal brief filed last month with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that FMCSA should have implemented its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program through a rulemaking, rather than through the online posting of a “series of PowerPoint presentations and other advisories” on its website without opportunity for public comment.
“They are causing economic harm and tectonic changes in the huge national marketplace for motor carrier services,” the group’s brief said.
The lawsuit, filed in July, is seeking to require FMCSA to not make carrier safety scores publicly available, block the agency from advising the public to rely on the scores to hire carriers, and re-implement the CSA program through the slower-moving and more thorough regulatory process.
Duane DeBruyne, an FMCSA spokesman, said the agency routinely does not comment on pending litigation. The court has given FMCSA until Jan. 14 to respond to the plaintiffs’ brief. The case has not been set for oral arguments.
