"If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" appeared to be the prevailing rule behind a recent decision by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to withdraw a proposal to make the North American Uniform Out-of-Service Criteria part
of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.
The criteria is published by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), an association of federal, state and provincial officials responsible for the enforcement of motor carrier safety regulations in the U.S, Canada and Mexico.
It is widely used by federal, state and local enforcement officials during roadside inspections to determine if a vehicle or driver should be placed out of service. In 1998 the Federal Highway Administration -- then responsible for enforcing federal motor carrier safety rules -- opened a rulemaking to determine if the criteria should be made part of the federal rules.
FMCSA says that most of the comments it received expressed concern that subjecting the criteria to the federal rulemaking process would undermine the efforts of states, provinces and industry to work together through CVSA in developing the criteria and adopting changes as necessary. However, others urged incorporation of the criteria into the rules to make it legally binding on inspectors.
While the agency said it didn’t agree that the mere act of adopting the criteria into the regulations would impact the current process, it did point out problems and regulatory tangles such action could create. Adoption of the criteria would mean that federal personnel could only use guidelines included in the federal regulations, which can only be revised through formal rulemaking. State enforcement personnel would be limited to the laws and regulations of their states, which are allowed to adopt more stringent requirements than those specified in the federal regulations if they feel a safety problem isn’t adequately addressed.
Thus federal adoption of the criteria might only increase the likelihood of inconsistencies between tolerances used by federal and state officials "with no readily apparent benefit to motor carrier safety," FMCSA said. "Furthermore, such inconsistencies would only worsen the problems perceived by those who believe it is necessary to adopt the criteria into the FMCSRs."
The agency also noted that the current process for maintaining the criteria "provides an effective mechanism for federal, state and provincial officials and industry representative from the U.S., Canada and Mexico to work together to ensure uniform international enforcement tolerances." Thus, it concluded, out-of-service enforcement tolerances should continue to be managed through the CVSA partnership.
The decision appeared in the July 24 Federal Register which can be accessed at www.gpoaccess.gov .