FMCSA

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has declared a Mitchell, South Dakota-based trucking company and its owner-driver to be imminent hazards to public safety and ordered both to immediately cease all interstate and intrastate commercial operations.

Considering the regulatory environment in which transportation firms do business is miles from black and white, it’s no surprise that both drivers and enforcement personnel alike often are confused by the ins and outs of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s CSA.

Continental released a free update to its VDO RoadLog ELD software addressing the recent suspension of certain provisions of the 34-hour restart rules.

The difficulty and cost of including crash fault in the CSA safety enforcement system appears to outweigh the benefits, according to an analysis by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The long-awaited report to Congress, which will be made public today, says that police accident reports probably don’t provide enough information to support determinations of fault.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is recruiting drivers and carriers to participate in a study of the 34-hour restart provision of the hours of service rule.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will release its study on crash accountability in the next couple of weeks, said Jack Van Steenburg, the agency’s chief safety officer.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is on track to launch its study of the 34-hour restart, said Martin Walker, chief of the agency’s research division.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will soon launch a national program to train police officers in traffic enforcement for large trucks. The agency worked with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance on a curriculum covering the basics of truck safety enforcement.

The Federal Motor Carrier Administration announced the availability of $30 million in state grants aimed at assisting states in improving transportation safety by modernizing their technology infrastructure.

Fourteen years later, the Mexican cross-border trucking provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement will finally be implemented.

Joseph DeLorenzo, director at the Office of Enforcement and Compliance for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, will deliver a keynote address at Omnitracs Outlook 2015.

California beekeepers are looking for relief from the 30-minute break provision of the hours of service rule.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that random testing for controlled substances would remain at a rate of 50% in 2015.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proper safety controls in place for Mexican carriers operating across the border, but the pilot program to test the system has too few participants to project the outcome of a full border opening, says the DOT Inspector General.

The political slugfest over the 34-hour restart dominated the news from Washington, D.C., in the second half of 2014, but that obscure provision of the hours of service rule is not nearly as important as other developments during the year.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration posted official notice that the more restrictive version of the 34-hour restart has been suspended.

The pre-2013 34-hour restart rule is now in effect. On Tuesday President Obama signed the 2015 appropriations bill, which contains a provision suspending the more restrictive restart that went into effect as part of the hours of service rules enacted in July 2013.

By increasing truckload capacity of the industry, there should be a slight boost to potential productivity, according to analysis from transportation research firm FTR.

As soon as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration publishes the final rule, probably on December 18, truck drivers will no longer have to file inspection reports when there are no defects in the truck.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is going ahead with its plan to negotiate the terms of a rule covering entry-level driver training.