FMCSA

Navigating the Trucking Regulatory Landscape: A Recap of 2023

As the wheels of the trucking industry rolled into 2023, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) set the stage for a year filled with pivotal regulatory developments. From the contentious discussions surrounding truck speed limiters to the examination of unique identification

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FMCSA Raises Broker & Freight Forwarder Financial Responsibilities

Motor carriers have new protections against broker and freight forwarder fraud. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a final rule on broker and freight forwarder financial responsibilities with the aim of alleviating the effects of broker or trustee non-payment of claims. FMCSA says it listened closely to motor carrier

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FMCSA Making Improvements to Complaint Website

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is working on improvements to its National Consumer Complaint Database (NCCDB) that will lead to better reporting to the trucking industry. Many of the NCCDB updates came from recommendations in a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. One of the issues raised in the

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ACT NOW! Access to Your FMCSA Accounts Is Changing.

The federal government is moving to multifactor identification to access official accounts and databases. You probably already experience updated security when accessing your bank, mortgage, or credit card accounts. The same thing is coming at the federal level. The updated security will include the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)

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FMCSA Finalizes Changes to Emergency Trucking Exemptions

The trucking industry remembers the COVID-19 pandemic very well. From 2020 to 2022, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued nine emergency declarations, waiving specific sections of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) to facilitate emergency relief efforts by motor carriers. With each emergency declaration update, FMCSA adjusted

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Cost/Benefit Changes = More Federal Trucking Regulations?

As a motor carrier you have budgetary limits on your departments. As a truck driver you know some costs require pre-approval. Those limits exist to ensure the company has the cash flow needed for expenses. Through experience, you all have learned just how much things cost. So, when a bill

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Trucking Things to Know Now, Part 11: Federal Regulatory Updates

Whatever the political headlines of the day, federal agencies continue to add new trucking regulations, adopt new forms, and extend or discontinue previous waivers and exemptions. In this series, “Trucking Things to Know Now,” PrePass provides quick updates on regulatory developments, often with links to more information. Not Quite Full

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Carriers May Get Another Challenge to Truck Crash, Inspection Data

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is offering reassurance to motor carriers utilizing its DataQs system to challenge inaccuracies in truck crash and inspection data. No longer would appeals of DataQs decisions be ruled on by the same state-level personnel who made the original determination and then denied its

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FMCSA Overhaul of Key Truck Safety Program Begins

UPDATED – The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to potentially redo the Safety Fitness Determination (SFD) process, which is part of its comprehensive Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) truck safety program. The SFD process can result in a declaration that a motor

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FMCSA to Gather Data about Truck Driver Detention and Truck Maintenance

Two notices recently published in the Federal Register may provide clues to where the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is heading on important trucking regulations: driver detention and truck maintenance. These notices, known formally as Information Collection Requests (ICR) are required any time a federal agency looks to access

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FMCSA Accepting Petitions to Roll Back Meal and Rest Break Rules

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently gave notice that it will consider petitions to undo the federal preemption of truck driver meal and rest break rules in California and Washington State. The agency determined in 2018 and 2020 that those state-level rules were more stringent than the federal

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Urinalysis Fails to Catch Most Truck Driver Drug Use

A multiyear study commissioned by 10 major trucking companies concludes that urinalysis, the drug-testing method sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) for truck drivers, fails to identify about 90% of actual drug use. The study by the University of Central Arkansas compared more than 936,000 truck driver pre-employment

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