FMCSA

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will consider additional applications for exemptions from the federal hearing standard prohibiting deaf truck drivers from interstate operations. The first 40 such individuals to receive these exemptions were approved in February.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is moving to fix a longtime problem in its CSA safety enforcement system. The agency is asking for comments on a plan to start including in its CSA database the results of court rulings on carrier challenges of roadside inspection citations.

The Association of Independent Property Brokers & Agents lost a challenge on Tuesday before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to delay enforcement of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new broker bond requirement that takes full effect on Dec. 1.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Moving Fraud Task Force has shut down five household goods moving companies in Florida, South Carolina and Maryland for holding customer shipments hostage and failing to turn over records related to their investigations.

The subject at Thursday’s House hearing was truck driver hours-of-service regulations, but the target was federal regulation of business. Anne Ferro, chief of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, testified that the 34-hour restart provision of the rule will save an estimated 19 lives a year.

A recent Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration report shows that motor carriers using the agency’s Pre-Employment Screening Program are seeing a greater decline in crash rates than those who are not using it.

The stage is set for a political grilling of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration at a House hearing Thursday on the hours-of-service rule. Amid relentless criticism of the 34-hour restart and 30-minute break provisions of the rule, agency administrator Anne Ferro will be called on to explain and defend the agency’s decision-making.

The American Transportation Research Institute on Monday released the findings of its latest analysis of the operational and economic impacts resulting from the new hours-of-service rules that went into effect July 1.

A House subcommittee will hold a hearing on the truck driver hours-of-service rule next week. The Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce of the Small Business Committee will question Anne Ferro, chief of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, on the rule.

UPDATED -- The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended audits of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's oversight processes in light of several deadly crashes that the board investigated, saying the findings from these investigations raise serious questions about the oversight of motor carrier operations.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has ordered a Cherryville, N.C.-based trucking company, to immediately cease operations, declaring it to be an imminent hazard to public safety.

This year, participating agencies inspected 20,067 vehicles throughout Brake Safety Week and placed 2,714 commercial vehicles out-of-service for brake violations. The rate for brake violations ties with May 2013 and September 2010 for the lowest OOS rates recorded since similar events began in 1998.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is test-driving an improved version of its Safety Measurement System website.

Newly released figures from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration show an increase in the number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes over the past year, but there are improvements when compared to longer time periods.

A trio of House legislators introduced a bill that would suspend the 34-hour restart provision of the hours of service rule, pending an assessment by the Government Accountability Office.

A House committee is considering holding a hearing on the truck driver hours-of-service rule in November. The tentative date for the hearing would be Nov. 21, sources said.