The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has released an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, requesting comments from the industry on whether the agency should require new carrier applicants to pass a safety examination as part of its revised New Entrant Safety Assurance Process. The FMCSA also welcomes comments on other methods to ensure that new carriers are knowledgeable about safety requirements.

The move comes on the heels of the agency's new rule passed in December, which raised the compliance standards for passing new entrant safety audits. Under that rule, a newly registered trucking or bus company will automatically fail its safety audit if it violates any one of 16 essential federal regulations during the 18-month safety monitoring period.

However, in response to the final rule, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety filed a petition for reconsideration on Jan. 15, 2009, alleging that the FMCSA did not go far enough in terms of safety.

The safety group notes that Congress required the Secretary of Transportation to establish "minimum requirements for applicant motor carriers ... to ensure applicant carriers are knowledgeable about applicable federal motor carrier safety standards." Nothing in the final rule, the petition says, requires new entrants to meet any minimum requirement or to ensure that new entrants have any particular level of knowledge about the federal motor carrier safety standards or the hazardous materials regulations.

In its comments on the proposed rule, Advocates strongly supported a proficiency exam.

"However, FMCSA nowhere in the final rule provides an evaluation of the merits, including the safety benefits, of formulating and administering a proficiency examination that would corroborate or supplant unverified assurances provided by new entrants that they are knowledgeable of ... motor carrier safety regulations," stated the petition.

The FMCSA's ANPRM asked for information on questions such as the feasibility of establishing a proficiency examination, information about similar types of tests that could serve as models, information on the anticipated impact on new entrants, how such an exam would increase carrier knowledge of the regulations, and others.

The industry must file comments by Oct. 26.

This is part of FMCSA's ongoing effort to ensure that new entrants into the business are prepared to meet their safety responsibilities. A final rule probably is several years away.

For a copy of the ANPRM, click here.