Transport Topics Staff This story appears in the Jan. 5 print edition of Transport Topics.
An update on hours-of-service safety research will be among the highlights at the Transportation Research Board’s annual conference, scheduled for Jan. 11-15 in Washington.
On Jan. 13, Scott Darling, acting administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, will kick off a two-part session by outlining the agency’s regulatory landscape for 2015. FMCSA staffers also will discuss field study findings on the HOS restart rule and plans for future research, according to TRB.
Other subjects expected to be addressed at the group’s 94th annual conference are the electronic logging device rulemaking; the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program; commercial motor vehicle safety trends and the Unified Registration System.
A day earlier, Darling will join top officials from seven other modal agencies within DOT for a spotlight session at the annual TRB conference. The focus will be on safety and human factors across all transportation modes, including how DOT’s regulatory framework should be adjusted to anticipate and prevent more crashes through the use of better risk analysis.
Also Jan. 12, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is expected to outline DOT’s framework for addressing the United States’ long-term transportation needs.
Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board has scheduled a Jan. 13 event at TRB to unveil its 2015 “Most Wanted” list of transportation-safety improvements.
“We’re excited about the new list of critical changes needed to improve the safety of our transportation system, and this TRB annual meeting is an excellent venue to announce it,” said Christopher Hart, NTSB’s acting chairman. “The public deserves continuing safety improvements in transportation. We look forward to working with the TRB and others to spur action on continuing safety improvements in 2015.”
Also during the conference, Curtis Whalen of the Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference is scheduled to speak about current issues in port drayage and chassis management, and Dan Murray of the American Transportation Research Institute will contribute to a session on trucking and the supply chain.
TRB said the annual meeting will include 5,000 presentations in more than 750 sessions, covering all transportation modes and specialties.
The meeting is considered the world’s largest gathering of transportation practitioners and researchers. Attendees from more than 80 countries are expected.
This year’s conference takes place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. It is the first time in six decades it is not taking place at hotels in the Woodley Park neighborhood of the nation’s capital.
“The annual meeting has grown so much that current venues have been stretched to their limits — and, in some cases, beyond them,” according to a TRB statement.
TRB announced its executive director, Robert Skinner Jr., will be the featured speaker at the chairman’s luncheon Jan. 14. Skinner, who is retiring at the end of January, will receive the Frank Turner Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Transportation.
