The Senate has passed legislation with a provision that would require the Department of Health and Human Services to provide an explanation for a 21-month delay in issuing mandatory federal hair testing guidelines for safety-sensitive transportation employees such as truck drivers.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a final rule that will allow certificated medical examiners to decide whether truck drivers with stable diabetes are qualified to drive, eliminating a requirement that the drivers seek an exemption from the agency before being allowed to get behind the wheel.

In written comments reacting to potential changes to federal driver hours-of-service rules, truckers clearly favor a potential plan by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to give them more flexibility with their driving and workday hours.

More than one of every five trucks that received comprehensive Level I inspections during the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s International Roadcheck this summer were taken out of service, CVSA reported on Sept. 12. CVSA said that the out-of-service rate for the 45,400 Level I inspections was 21.6%, a decrease from last year’s 23% rate.

At the request of four Republican congressmen, the Office of Inspector General for the Environmental Protection Agency has announced plans to conduct an audit of a 2017 EPA study that concluded glider trucks are bigger polluters than trucks that meet newer federal emissions standards.

An “incursion” nine months ago that shut down the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners still is causing delays in registering new examiners and backlogs for medical examiners to upload truck driver examinations, officials said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has planned a public listening session this month to discuss several proposed changes to the commercial motor vehicle driver hours-of-service regulations.

Citing a persistent increase in the number of vehicle-train collisions at highway-rail grade crossings in recent years, the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General has informed the Federal Railroad Administration that it is conducting an audit of the agency’s incident data.

Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice and trailer manufacturers are sparring in court over just how much information the government should provide in a lawsuit about whether truck trailers should for the first time be subject to federal emissions requirements.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration officials held their first public meeting Aug. 30 to drill down on portions of their action plan to evaluate possible sweeping future changes to the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program’s Safety Measurement System used to identify motor carriers at high risk for future crashes.