Do you know what motor carriers need to have on your radar? What do you need to be mindful about this year 
keeping in mind the federal and regulatory front? We are going to discuss what FMCSA rules are affecting the transportation industry safety.
- ‘Beyond Compliance’ and other Provisions of Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST): It is noted that the FAST act bundled in some new provisions, and among those is a concept that talks about going beyond just what is needed for regulatory compliance to improve safety measures. The idea behind this is that, while the program takes shape, FMCSA will be focusing enforcement resources and compliance on the most important topics, and reward the carriers needed to promote safety technologies and above-and-beyond efforts, and those which promote safety technology and programs in trucking. According to experts, the fleets need to watch for FMCSA notices, not as a rule, but as an opportunity to get some ideas and inputs on how to do it in best possible way so that everyone gets something from it.
- Crashes: Crashes in general, as well as crash preventability and how they affect CSA scores is a favorite subject among many. The thing is, FMCSA struggles with handling complex issues and more may crop up soon. If you’ve dealt with crashes, you know how complicated they make things. As FMCSA tries to uncomplicated things, fleets should be on continuous lookout for making things better.
- Ratings of Safety Fitness: in FMCSA ‘Big Change’, a noticed of proposed rulemaking was issued concerning a revamp of how to determine the safety fitness rating of the carrier, and you have 60 days before you need to put your initial comments, which should be interesting and provide additional data. Some resources have been put down by FMCSA into this one and developed tools which will help in breaking down and understanding the proposal, including calculators allowing carriers to go, take the data, plug in and see how to come out under the proposal.
- Bus Leasing Changes: Experts say that there is more to come over and above the bus releasing changes published in 2015. The new changes won’t go to effect until 2017, however, people involved in that know how the changes in bus leases work, and it’s really important. The final rules says that those changes are necessary so as to ensure that unsafe passenger carriers are unable to evade FMCSA enforcement.
- Drug and Alcohol Testing Clearinghouse Info: The fully matured FMCSA drug and alcohol testing clearinghouse for commercial drivers would address concerns such as ones where the CDL drivers can fail test but can break the paper and get job with some other carrier.
Some petitions have been put for reconsideration, and FMCSA is looking into those to decide if there is any cleverness to make adjustment in the role. FMCSA will be shortly making declaration if such information is released. If you want to be updated with changing FMCSA regulations and rules, join this session New FMCSA Issues: 34 Hour Restart Revision, ELD Mandate, Supreme Court Speed Limiters and Sleep Apnea by expert speaker Mark Dixon on Thursday, June 30, 2016.
