WASHINGTON — A meeting to gather public input on ways to improve a safety performance scoring program for carriers will be scheduled this year, the top trucking regulator told House lawmakers on July 18.

Legislation that would pre-empt state laws on meal and rest breaks for truckers and boost funding for truck safety grants was advanced by a House funding panel on July 17.

A House hearing will focus on the controversial methodology of FMCSA's Compliance, Safety, Accountability performance scoring program. Here's the week ahead for trucking on Capitol Hill.

For years, truckers have been complaining that inspectors do not always submit reports to federal regulators giving them credit for no violations or “clean” roadside inspections.

Federal trucking regulators would receive a boost of more than $100 million in their annual budget under a fiscal 2018 funding bill House lawmakers unveiled this week.

A decision by federal trucking regulators to adopt sweeping recommendations of an elite academic panel’s study assessing the way truckers are safety-rated has been mostly well received by the industry; yet some truckers admit they are a bit baffled by the complex “item response theory,” or IRT, approach to revamp the federal Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

A federally appointed working group on household goods tackled recommendations for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that aim to better inform consumers of moving fraud and streamline paperwork for brokerage and moving companies.