Meera Joshi Promoted to FMCSA Administrator

In mid-April, Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Meera Joshi as the administrator to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Does this sound familiar? If the news sounds like a repeat from the beginning of the year, there is a slight change that makes this different than before.

Technical Promotion

Until now, Joshi worked as the acting deputy administrator, but with presumably nobody above her, it may be safe to say she was acting administrator.

Whatever the case, it appears Joe Biden has approved of her work so far and hopes to have her work permanently.

Meera Joshi

Meera Joshi graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology, followed by obtaining a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1995. Her recent work background most notably includes working for the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) since 2011, where she became the CEO and Commission Chair in 2014 under mayor Bill de Blasio.

The TLC regulates daily passenger transportation within New York City. This is not just for taxis and limousines, but also ridesharing programs such as Uber and Lyft. In total, the TLC oversees 130,000 vehicles and 200,000 different drivers.

One of her top priorities working at the TLC involved policy to make sure rideshare drivers obtained livable wages. Similar work may be done under Joshi for broker transparency in the years to come.

Conclusion

The last time the FMCSA had a permanent lead administrator was under the Trump Administration in 2019 with Raymond Martinez.

So far the FMCSA seems to be taking more of a backseat approach than it did in 2020 with active changes such as the hours-of-service reform. Nobody knows if this pattern will continue for four more years, except maybe Meera Joshi herself.