FMCSA Chief Safety Officer Speaks at WEX OTR Summit
On October 28th, WEX started a conference to discuss all things trucking. One of the key speakers there was the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Chief Safety Officer Steve Dowling. Here is what he said about safety in the trucking industry.
Motus Woes
Motus is a relatively new registration system used by the FMCSA to keep required information and records up-to-date. Its rollout has left a lot to be desired. Dowling says that approximately 95% of carriers are now compliant with the system, but that “good enough” is not good enough.
“That’s not acceptable to us,” the safety chief said. “There are thousands of people that we’re keeping out of the industry because we’ve initiated Motus.”
Because of this, Dowling says getting compliance up to 100% and resolving the remaining edge cases is one of the top priorities of the FMCSA.
Hours-of-Service Requirements
Dowling also talked about the Hours-of-Service (HOS) test changes, including one we covered recently about potential changes regarding sleeper berth hours. He says that the FMCSA is testing to find ways to help trucking companies better run their business without impacting fatigue. In his own words:
“When you look at the rules and what was there, it was all trying to create some type of standard to make sure that we were addressing fatigue because it has a direct correlation to safety. Being in compliance with the rules, you can still be fatigued. However, on the flip side, just because that’s what the rule is doesn’t mean we don’t need to look at it and see there are other ways to accomplish it that work better with the industry and how you run your operations. So, that’s one of the things that you’re going to see coming out.”
The news is especially poignant as recent developments have shown some Electronic Logging Device providers granting drivers resets on their driving hours.
Conclusion
Since the start of the second Trump Administration, the FMCSA has shifted into overdrive on managing safety beyond all other priorities. This has led to a wide variety of trucking industry entities, such as owner-operators and CDL training schools, to be forced out of the industry. Dowling reiterated the FMCSA’s primary implication at the conference that fewer trucks on the road are a worthy trade-off for those drivers being the best of the best.
“One of the things that I love about FMCSA is our mission is really simple, and it’s something that’s easy to get behind. It’s to reduce crashes, injuries, fatalities involving large trucks and buses.”
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