Report: FMCSA Unsure How to Meet DOT Goals

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration does not know how it will achieve Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater’s aim of cutting the number of truck-related deaths in half by 2009, the General Accounting Office says in a new report.

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The six-month-old agency also lacks data that would allow it to estimate the degree to which its “Safety Action Plan” will reduce fatalities. FMCSA also hasn’t determined whether it has enough money or staff to achieve its goals, the congressional watchdog agency said in a report issued July 17.

The report, “Commercial Motor Vehicles: Effectiveness of Actions being Taken to Improve Motor Carrier Safety is Unknown,” comes eight months after the agency was created by Congress. It follows criticism by the GAO and DOT’s inspector general. The report was requested by Rep. Frank Wolf, (R-Va.), chairman of the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee. Wolf’s criticism of the Federal Highway Administration’s oversight of truck and bus safety led to creation of the new agency in November.

In separate reports last year, the GAO and the inspector general concluded that the FHWA’s Office of Motor Carriers had switched its emphasis and resources from enforcement to education and outreach. Slater opposed moving responsibility for truck and bus safety from the highway agency and set a goal of reducing the number of truck-related fatalities to half the 1998 total of 5,373 deaths. To achieve that plan, DOT beefed up its enforcement activities even before responding to the congressional directive to create a motor carrier safety agency.