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Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

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Overview:
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety is charged with creating regulations and safety initiatives, to be used in cooperation with States, to improve the safety of commercial vehicles.
 
more
History:

The FMCSA was created within the Department of Transportation pursuant to the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act (MCSIA) of 1999. The purpose of the MCSIA was to improve the safety of commercial drivers through regulations, stronger enforcement and sanctions. According to the MCSIA, the goal was to reduce the number and severity of large-truck involved collisions.

more
What it Does:

COMPASSis an agency wide initiative to implement information technology solutions to improve data quality and business processes. It will also help FMCSA to work easily with state enforcement personnel to improve transfer of data and research for education, enforcement and outreach.
 
Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety and Security includes many programs aimed at increasing the use of seat belts among drivers. Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT) is a research initiative to serve as a model for states to implement a high-visibility law enforcement program and educate motorists how to safely share the road with large trucks. Hazardous Materials security risks are also managed and require an FMCSA safety permit and registration with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in order to transport hazardous materials.
 
Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 Initiativewas started in 2004 to create a new operational model to more efficiently increase the safety of commercial vehicles and drivers after limitations were found with the current model.New approaches include more incentives for safe behavior and increased use of innovative technology to ensure safety and efficiency. The first operational model test was given in February 2008 to assess the efficiency and improvement of the new plan to reach FMSCA target goals.
 
The Rules and Regulations area is responsible for all of the truckers’ regulations, including the controversial Hours of Service rules. Federal regulations include driver safety, drug and alcohol use and interstate delivery of household goods. Vehicle regulations are also in place to ensure safety for drivers and other motorists as well and limitations on weight and size. The Commercial Motor Carrier Safety Assistance program is also included to provide financial assistance to states to actively enforce safety regulations to reduce accidents. There are also regulations for transporting and parking hazardous material. NAFTA regulations are also managed in this area. There are also medical regulations to ensure the health and capability of drivers to safely operate commercial vehicles.
 
In Registration and Licensing, one of the main components to ensure compliance is the registration for a USDOT number by all companies operating interstate trucks. This area of FMCSA includes licensing of commercial vehicle drivers and support in understanding regulations. There are also new company requirements and support for licensing and insurance for their commercial vehicles.
 
Analysis, Research and Technology is the main source of data and information behind policy created to increase the safety of commercial vehicles and drivers. This division of FMCSA engages in studies on economic and environmental impacts, as well as innovative ways to improve safety through analyzing data and trends. The technology aspects look at developing new technology to improve safety and conducts tests to evaluate efficiency.
 
The Cross Border division in FMCSA works within NAFTA regulations to allow Mexican-based commercial vehicles to drive within the U.S. FMCSA is in charge of monitoring and registering all Mexican-based companies and extending safety rules and regulations to Mexican drivers and vehicles. It also deals with the less controversial border with Canada and the monitoring of Canadian motor carriers.

FMCSA Welcomes Mexican Motor Carriers

more
Controversies:

Truckers’ Hours
The Bush Administration has been criticized for its deregulation campaign that has tried to loosen “cumbersome” rules on the trucking industry, including limits on the number of hours truck drivers can work per day. Advocates for highway safety argue that the deregulation is to blame for truck accidents and deaths. Opponents point at the administration’s appointment of trucking industry executives and stakeholders in the Department of Transportation.
Courts Voids Higher Limits on Truckers’ Hours (by Stephen Labaton, New York Times)
 
Electronic On-Board Recorders

more
Debate:

Mexican Truckers
There is considerable debate on the implications of NAFTA and Mexican commercial truck drivers working in the U.S. A pilot program was initiated in 2007, monitored by FCMSA, and there is a question regarding the benefits and costs of allowing Mexican truckers to drive past the commercial zone on the border and into the U.S.
 
Proponents of Allowing Mexican Truckers into the U.S
Attempt to Limit Mexican Trucking in U.S. Masks Union Agenda (by Daniel Griswold, Center For Trade Policy Studies)
 
Opponents

more
Former Directors:

more

Comments

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Edward Trevino 5 years ago
I received my DOT medical card from occupational health in Florida after I saw my physicians and was cleared by MY physicians blood work requirements. But one health decided that was not good enough so they ordered a sleep study and now require me to so an urologist to clear my bloodwork. Onehealth which has never seen me is requiring testing for sleep apnea which I have never had an issue and my physicians do not know why they have the power to deny me my full year certification since I already had one the previous year.I ist that job due to time requirements but the odd thing I was not going to be driving since I was going to be a mechanic on pump and compressors for Halliburton. The system is broken when an organization has never Seen the patient requires more testing after I have received my copy of my medical card from a certified hospital physician.aNd only issues a 4 month card while a year card is required for employment.a
Thomas McDonald 10 years ago
I am writing from California. We have started an Organization for Road Safety and Pedestrian Protection since the passing of our child. My question is when will we get trucks and buses installed with Collision Prevention Sensors? Why are we dropping the ball on this life saving technology? Can you please lead the way so we can have all our roadway vehicles equipped with such systems! www.facebook.com/StopStopStopAMF http://www.thepetitionsite.com/621/736/836/require-accident-prevention-sensors-for-pedestrian-protection-road-safety/
kevin 10 years ago
I think a lot of what the "powers that be" do in regard to regulations is completley uncalled for as well as just an expression of the lack of first hand knowledge/experience of the trucking occupation all together. For example, how does changing the license plate on a truck magically enhance the suspension and brake system to make that particular vehicle "safe"? Also why don't ALL vehicles on the road or ALL drivers of commercial AND non-commercial drivers have hours of service logs? tired drivers are tired drivers. big vehicles or small ones. They can all caues accidents. In my honest opinion, as with most everything else, the government has got thier big ugly nose in too deep.The truth is it is all a big money scam amd the federal government is guilty of racketeering with all of the b.s. plates,permits, numbers,taxes on already taxed items(fuel). Convince me that a pick up truck hauling a new horse trailer is doing as much damage to the roadways as an 80k rig or that it is just as hard to stop. A lot of the crap truckers have to put up with is crap truckers in the past have cried about.One big company got jealous that a smaller outfit made more money so they paid some politian and some lobbiest to "go tell daddy to change the rules", hopping to squash out the little man. same old story since the 70s.Too many government hands in truckers wallets like the thieves and beggars they are.

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Founded: 2000
Annual Budget: $530 million
Employees: 1,192
Official Website: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Darling III, T.F. Scott
Previous Administrator

T.F. Scott Darling III, who has been running the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) since 2014, was nominated on Aug. 5, 2015, by President Barack Obama to be the agency’s permanent administrator.

Darling is from the Boston area and sought to be an urban planner. He attended Clark University, earning a bachelor’s degree in urban government with a minor in geography in 1984. He subsequently earned a master’s in public policy from Tufts and a law degree from Suffolk University.

Between 2001 and 2003, Darling served as the part-time executive director for Freedom House in Dorchester, Massachusetts. In Darling’s work as an attorney, he dealt mainly with transportation, land-use, housing and environmental issues. From 2003 to 2005 he was a staff attorney at Fort Point Associates in Boston, which is an urban planning and environmental consulting firm. He was also the director and staff attorney for the Greater Boston Institute in the Conservation Law Foundation. There he helped organize the Riders Oversight Commission, which gave Boston-area public transit users a voice in how the system is run.

In 2005, Darling went to work for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, initially as an environmental and land-use counsel, as well as its privacy administrator. He was promoted in 2009 to be deputy chief of staff and assistant general counsel for the authority.

Darling went to Washington in 2012 as chief counsel for the FMCSA. He was made acting administrator two years later upon the departure of Administrator Anne Farro. His term as acting administrator ended in March 2015, but Darling continued to run FMCSA as its general counsel.

Darling is married to Alyson Cooke, a counsel to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. She formerly worked for then-Senator Joe Biden.

-Steve Straehley

To Learn More

Scott Darling, FMCSA’s Top Lawyer, to Serve as Interim Administrator (by Kevin Jones, Commercial Carrier Journal)

Official Biography

more
Ferro, Anne
Former Administrator

President Obama’s choice to lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has created a firestorm of criticism from labor and safety advocacy groups. FMCSA, which is part of the Department of Transportation, is charged with creating regulations and safety initiatives to be used in cooperation with states, to improve the safety of commercial vehicles, especially trucks. Trucking companies, labor unions representing truckers, and safety-oriented consumer groups are the main constituents seeking to influence FMCSA.

 
Anne S. Ferro, who was sworn in as FMCSA administrator on November 13, 2009, had spent the previous six years leading a trade association of trucking companies, the Maryland Motor Truck Association, a history that has the Teamsters Union and the Truck Safety Coalition crying foul and criticizing her selection. These groups are particularly critical of Ferro’s previous support for a Bush administration relaxation of “hours of service” regulations that would allow trucking companies to require drivers to drive for as long as eleven hours straight, which they view as an unsafe practice. Nevertheless, in late October 2009, FMCSA agreed to abandon the new rules.
 
Born in Maryland circa 1958, Ferro grew up in Larchmont, New York, the daughter of Don and Marybelle Schanche. After graduating high school, she worked as a stable hand in California and Wyoming. After traveling abroad with her parents (her father headed The Los Angeles Times Cairo bureau), Ferro returned to Maryland for her studies. She earned a B.A. from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1980, and immediately became a Peace Corps volunteer in Côte d’Ivoire. Upon her return to the U.S., Ferro earned a Master’s in Public Management from the University Of Maryland School Of Public Policy. She did stints in economic development at the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland and served six years with the Maryland General Assembly Department of Fiscal Services (now the Department of Legislative Services), where she staffed the House Ways and Means Committee, from 1986 to 1992. In 1992, Ferro took a job as Associate Administrator of Vehicle Services at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, and was appointed Administrator in 1997. In January 2003, Ferro was briefly fired by incoming Republican governor Robert Ehrlich, who wanted to appoint a Republican to her post, but the outcry from the Maryland General Assembly resulted in her hasty re-appointment. Nevertheless, Ferro left government early the following year to become President of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, a trade association representing Maryland trucking companies. 
 
Ferro and her husband, Dan, have two children and reside in Annapolis, Maryland. Since 2004, Ferro has donated $2,000 to the American Trucking Association’s political action committee. 
 
Teamsters, Safety Groups Blast FMCSA Pick (by William B. Cassidy, Journal of Commerce)
Taking the Wheel at the MMTA (by Deidre N. McCabe, Port of Baltimore) (PDF)
more

Table of Contents
Bookmark and Share
Overview:
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety is charged with creating regulations and safety initiatives, to be used in cooperation with States, to improve the safety of commercial vehicles.
 
more
History:

The FMCSA was created within the Department of Transportation pursuant to the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act (MCSIA) of 1999. The purpose of the MCSIA was to improve the safety of commercial drivers through regulations, stronger enforcement and sanctions. According to the MCSIA, the goal was to reduce the number and severity of large-truck involved collisions.

more
What it Does:

COMPASSis an agency wide initiative to implement information technology solutions to improve data quality and business processes. It will also help FMCSA to work easily with state enforcement personnel to improve transfer of data and research for education, enforcement and outreach.
 
Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety and Security includes many programs aimed at increasing the use of seat belts among drivers. Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT) is a research initiative to serve as a model for states to implement a high-visibility law enforcement program and educate motorists how to safely share the road with large trucks. Hazardous Materials security risks are also managed and require an FMCSA safety permit and registration with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in order to transport hazardous materials.
 
Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 Initiativewas started in 2004 to create a new operational model to more efficiently increase the safety of commercial vehicles and drivers after limitations were found with the current model.New approaches include more incentives for safe behavior and increased use of innovative technology to ensure safety and efficiency. The first operational model test was given in February 2008 to assess the efficiency and improvement of the new plan to reach FMSCA target goals.
 
The Rules and Regulations area is responsible for all of the truckers’ regulations, including the controversial Hours of Service rules. Federal regulations include driver safety, drug and alcohol use and interstate delivery of household goods. Vehicle regulations are also in place to ensure safety for drivers and other motorists as well and limitations on weight and size. The Commercial Motor Carrier Safety Assistance program is also included to provide financial assistance to states to actively enforce safety regulations to reduce accidents. There are also regulations for transporting and parking hazardous material. NAFTA regulations are also managed in this area. There are also medical regulations to ensure the health and capability of drivers to safely operate commercial vehicles.
 
In Registration and Licensing, one of the main components to ensure compliance is the registration for a USDOT number by all companies operating interstate trucks. This area of FMCSA includes licensing of commercial vehicle drivers and support in understanding regulations. There are also new company requirements and support for licensing and insurance for their commercial vehicles.
 
Analysis, Research and Technology is the main source of data and information behind policy created to increase the safety of commercial vehicles and drivers. This division of FMCSA engages in studies on economic and environmental impacts, as well as innovative ways to improve safety through analyzing data and trends. The technology aspects look at developing new technology to improve safety and conducts tests to evaluate efficiency.
 
The Cross Border division in FMCSA works within NAFTA regulations to allow Mexican-based commercial vehicles to drive within the U.S. FMCSA is in charge of monitoring and registering all Mexican-based companies and extending safety rules and regulations to Mexican drivers and vehicles. It also deals with the less controversial border with Canada and the monitoring of Canadian motor carriers.

FMCSA Welcomes Mexican Motor Carriers

more
Controversies:

Truckers’ Hours
The Bush Administration has been criticized for its deregulation campaign that has tried to loosen “cumbersome” rules on the trucking industry, including limits on the number of hours truck drivers can work per day. Advocates for highway safety argue that the deregulation is to blame for truck accidents and deaths. Opponents point at the administration’s appointment of trucking industry executives and stakeholders in the Department of Transportation.
Courts Voids Higher Limits on Truckers’ Hours (by Stephen Labaton, New York Times)
 
Electronic On-Board Recorders

more
Debate:

Mexican Truckers
There is considerable debate on the implications of NAFTA and Mexican commercial truck drivers working in the U.S. A pilot program was initiated in 2007, monitored by FCMSA, and there is a question regarding the benefits and costs of allowing Mexican truckers to drive past the commercial zone on the border and into the U.S.
 
Proponents of Allowing Mexican Truckers into the U.S
Attempt to Limit Mexican Trucking in U.S. Masks Union Agenda (by Daniel Griswold, Center For Trade Policy Studies)
 
Opponents

more
Former Directors:

more

Comments

more

Leave a comment

more
Founded: 2000
Annual Budget: $530 million
Employees: 1,192
Official Website: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Darling III, T.F. Scott
Previous Administrator

T.F. Scott Darling III, who has been running the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) since 2014, was nominated on Aug. 5, 2015, by President Barack Obama to be the agency’s permanent administrator.

Darling is from the Boston area and sought to be an urban planner. He attended Clark University, earning a bachelor’s degree in urban government with a minor in geography in 1984. He subsequently earned a master’s in public policy from Tufts and a law degree from Suffolk University.

Between 2001 and 2003, Darling served as the part-time executive director for Freedom House in Dorchester, Massachusetts. In Darling’s work as an attorney, he dealt mainly with transportation, land-use, housing and environmental issues. From 2003 to 2005 he was a staff attorney at Fort Point Associates in Boston, which is an urban planning and environmental consulting firm. He was also the director and staff attorney for the Greater Boston Institute in the Conservation Law Foundation. There he helped organize the Riders Oversight Commission, which gave Boston-area public transit users a voice in how the system is run.

In 2005, Darling went to work for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, initially as an environmental and land-use counsel, as well as its privacy administrator. He was promoted in 2009 to be deputy chief of staff and assistant general counsel for the authority.

Darling went to Washington in 2012 as chief counsel for the FMCSA. He was made acting administrator two years later upon the departure of Administrator Anne Farro. His term as acting administrator ended in March 2015, but Darling continued to run FMCSA as its general counsel.

Darling is married to Alyson Cooke, a counsel to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. She formerly worked for then-Senator Joe Biden.

-Steve Straehley

To Learn More

Scott Darling, FMCSA’s Top Lawyer, to Serve as Interim Administrator (by Kevin Jones, Commercial Carrier Journal)

Official Biography

more
Ferro, Anne
Former Administrator

President Obama’s choice to lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has created a firestorm of criticism from labor and safety advocacy groups. FMCSA, which is part of the Department of Transportation, is charged with creating regulations and safety initiatives to be used in cooperation with states, to improve the safety of commercial vehicles, especially trucks. Trucking companies, labor unions representing truckers, and safety-oriented consumer groups are the main constituents seeking to influence FMCSA.

 
Anne S. Ferro, who was sworn in as FMCSA administrator on November 13, 2009, had spent the previous six years leading a trade association of trucking companies, the Maryland Motor Truck Association, a history that has the Teamsters Union and the Truck Safety Coalition crying foul and criticizing her selection. These groups are particularly critical of Ferro’s previous support for a Bush administration relaxation of “hours of service” regulations that would allow trucking companies to require drivers to drive for as long as eleven hours straight, which they view as an unsafe practice. Nevertheless, in late October 2009, FMCSA agreed to abandon the new rules.
 
Born in Maryland circa 1958, Ferro grew up in Larchmont, New York, the daughter of Don and Marybelle Schanche. After graduating high school, she worked as a stable hand in California and Wyoming. After traveling abroad with her parents (her father headed The Los Angeles Times Cairo bureau), Ferro returned to Maryland for her studies. She earned a B.A. from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1980, and immediately became a Peace Corps volunteer in Côte d’Ivoire. Upon her return to the U.S., Ferro earned a Master’s in Public Management from the University Of Maryland School Of Public Policy. She did stints in economic development at the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland and served six years with the Maryland General Assembly Department of Fiscal Services (now the Department of Legislative Services), where she staffed the House Ways and Means Committee, from 1986 to 1992. In 1992, Ferro took a job as Associate Administrator of Vehicle Services at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, and was appointed Administrator in 1997. In January 2003, Ferro was briefly fired by incoming Republican governor Robert Ehrlich, who wanted to appoint a Republican to her post, but the outcry from the Maryland General Assembly resulted in her hasty re-appointment. Nevertheless, Ferro left government early the following year to become President of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, a trade association representing Maryland trucking companies. 
 
Ferro and her husband, Dan, have two children and reside in Annapolis, Maryland. Since 2004, Ferro has donated $2,000 to the American Trucking Association’s political action committee. 
 
Teamsters, Safety Groups Blast FMCSA Pick (by William B. Cassidy, Journal of Commerce)
Taking the Wheel at the MMTA (by Deidre N. McCabe, Port of Baltimore) (PDF)
more

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