The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has begun to take specific action to comply with President Trump’s Executive Order 13771 requiring agencies relieve businesses of burdensome regulations.

To that end, the agency gave a presentation on June 12 to the appointed members of its Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee, which has been tasked with making recommendations on which federal highway safety rules might be eliminated.

“To introduce a new FMCSA assignment to the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee members, agency staff prepared a short PowerPoint presentation outlining some possible 'regulatory relief' candidates that could be suggested or included in response to the Presidential Executive Order," FMCSA spokesman Duane DeBruyne told HDT.

"MCSAC, which is comprised of a broad representation of all of FMCSA's stakeholders, is now tasked to come up with their own independently derived recommendations," he added. 

The presentation laid out 12 commercial-vehicle rules that FMCSA staff had determined were candidates for being dropped. MCSAC’s task is not easy, given that all the rules in place were implemented with a safety purpose in mind. 

Some of the dozen rules were selected by the agency for regulatory review by the committee because they are simply outdated or because they are no longer enforced for one reason or another. 

For example, per the presentation, the Motor Carrier Routing Regulations (under Part 325) could be dropped as they are a remnant of the shuttered Interstate Commerce Commission and therefore it is questionable whether they still serve a purpose. It was suiggested their elimination would simplify regulations and have no significant economic impact.

Other rules proposed for the chopping block by agency staff include measures touching on other reporting requirements and some requirements covering medical records, employment application, and road test results for non-CDL drivers, as well as some cooperating agreements with states. 

The presentation closes with these three “next steps” to consider for the regulatory reform process to go forward:

• Conduct outreach with additional stakeholders

• Place DOT notice seeking public comment in the Federal Register

• FMCSA Rulemaking Planning 

While FMCSA staff did suggest that MCSAC members consider eliminating the set of 12 particular rules presented, DeBruyne stressed that it remains the committee’s task now “to independently come up with recommendations in response to the Presidential Executive Order.”