By Rip Watson, Senior Reporter
This story appears in the July 9 print edition of Transport Topics.
The Transportation Intermediaries Association has renewed its bid to force the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to display more information in its database for consistency with another federal agency.
The trade group reiterated its request on June 26 that the agency include the U.S. Department of Transportation and motor carrier (MC) numbers already shown in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s online carrier list.
Both FMCSA and the pipeline administration, also known as PHMSA, are part of USDOT.
“The [PHMSA] tool does not address the current deficiencies created by the lack of synchronization between the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration,” Robert Voltmann, president of TIA, wrote in a letter to Patricia Klinger, deputy director of PHMSA’s Office of Governmental and Public Affairs.
“The USDOT number is the single most recognizable identifier for motor carriers across all transportation industry platforms,” Voltmann said.
Asked about TIA’s letter, Jeannie Layson, director of PHMSA’s Office of Governmental and Public Affairs, said, “Improving and assessing data collection capabilities is a continuous process, and it should be. PHMSA is always working to improve data management and processing.”
TIA’s latest effort follows a meeting last year with an agency official, in which the trade group tried to convince PHMSA to add the DOT number while its database was being revised (12-12, p. 2).
Last month, Klinger told TIA that “we have made several changes [to the database].”
The online tool is “available to help users more easily find information about [shippers] and carriers of hazardous materials who have paid for a hazardous material certificate of registration,” she wrote in her e-mail.
The PHMSA database, updated daily, contains information dating back to 2008, such as the PHMSA registration number, company name, contact information and expiration of authority, her message to TIA said.
The problem, Voltmann wrote in his letter, is that, without the DOT/MC numbers, brokers and other users have to rely solely on company names.
“The reality is that different federal agencies usually have slightly or radically different names for the same carrier entities, thus
creating harmful differences between databases,” Voltmann wrote.
DOT did not respond to re-quests for comment on Voltmann’s latest request.
If DOT numbers are included in the PHMSA database, Voltmann said, brokers can use
that database in the same way that they use FMCSA’s information to verify that fleets have the proper operating and safety authority.
