Three trucking and freight transportation groups offered advice to Congress and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on ways to modernize processes and improve highway safety. 

First, Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, told a Senate subcommittee on June 9 that targeted policy decisions are crucial for a safer and more efficient freight network.

During the hearing, Spear expressed support for the Build America 250 Act, which was recently passed by a House committee, as well as numerous other actions Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation have taken over the past 18 months. 

He also laid out a six-step plan that he said would further improve safety and cut costs: 

• Repeal the 12% federal excise tax that adds tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of new equipment. 
• Reaffirm the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s role as the primary authority over motor vehicle safety standards in order to avoid a fragmented patchwork of state or court-imposed rules.
• Establish a federal framework for autonomous trucks, using a performance-based approach that sets technology-neutral goals.
• Modernize federal systems to combat cargo theft and fraud, including passing the SAFER Transport Act and Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (CORCA).
• Prioritize proven technologies that have demonstrated effectiveness in real-world trucking operations.
• Protect critical wireless spectrum for transportation systems.
   

Spear praised FMCSA’s efforts to modernize its registration process with last month’s launch of Motus. While the new system has encountered technical issues during the initial rollout, Spear said Motus ultimately could improve ownership transparency and enhance data quality. 

“While ATA strongly supports FMCSA’s modernization efforts, continued oversight and investment by Congress will be necessary to ensure Motus achieves its full potential,” Spear said. “As the agency continues refining the platform and addressing implementation challenges, Congress should ensure FMCSA has the resources, staffing, and technological infrastructure necessary to maintain a secure, reliable, and user-friendly registration system that effectively deters bad actors while minimizing burdens on legitimate carriers and brokers.”

In addition, Spear recommended that Congress not repeal or weaken the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate. Instead, Congress and FMCSA should consider a third-party certification process and other measures to stop bad actors. 

That could include real-time checks of drivers’ logs for common indicators of fraud and requiring all companies that register ELD devices to verify their footprint in the United States. 

TCA warns of mismatch between FMCSA responsibilities, staffing

Spear’s testimony took place the same day the Truckload Carriers Association published a white paper outlining recommended reforms to modernize FMCSA. 

TCA said there is a “growing mismatch between FMCSA’s expanding responsibilities and its limited staffing, outdated systems, and fragmented oversight tools.” The group urged Congress and DOT to realign FMCSA’s resources, update its safety fitness framework, and focus more on crash prevention.

“FMCSA is responsible for overseeing one of the largest and most diverse regulated populations in the federal government, yet it remains one of the smallest agencies within USDOT,” said TCA President Jim Mullen. “This imbalance compromises safety, weakens oversight, and leaves the motoring public at risk.

Mullen, who became TCA’s president earlier this year, previously served as FMCSA’s acting administrator and chief counsel from 2018 to 2020.

FMCSA’s regulatory system “is too often reactive rather than preventive, too dependent on episodic enforcement rather than continuous risk identification, and too poorly aligned with the modern safety challenges of interstate commercial transportation,” according to TCA. 

To tackle this problem, Congress should increase appropriations for core safety functions, authorize sustainable fee-based funding for registry and vetting programs, and narrow the agency’s portfolio to focus on activities most directly tied to crash prevention and safety oversight.  

TCA also called for the full implementation of a unified registration system, the harmonization of commercial and safety registration requirements, and that applicants demonstrate baseline regulatory competence before receiving authority to operate. 

“Registration should function as a genuine safety gatekeeping system rather than an administrative intake process,” TCA said. 

Similar to Spear’s comments on ELDs, TCA recommended the end of the “pure self-certified pathway” and to require meaningful vetting before a device appears on the registered list. 

“The goal should be to prevent defective devices from reaching the market rather than merely removing them after widespread deployment,” TCA said. 

Similar steps should be taken with other self-certification programs, including the Entry-Level Driver Training Provider (ELDT) Registry and the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners. 

TIA seeks motor carrier selection standards, high-risk list

In a separate development, Chris Burroughs, president of the Transportation Intermediaries Association, said the group had filed a petition for rulemaking with FMCSA, calling for the establishment of a federal motor carrier safety selection standard and the publication of a high-risk motor carrier list.

Burroughs said in a social media post that the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport case has “created a heightened and, frankly, untenable expectation on brokers and shippers to independently determine the safety fitness of motor carriers — often without access to consistent, reliable, or complete data.”

He stressed that more than 90% of motor carriers currently operate without an FMCSA safety rating, leaving “brokers and shippers in the difficult position of effectively serving as the enforcement arm of the agency.”

TIA said in the petition that FMCSA should establish a clear, uniform federal standard outlining the steps brokers and shippers should take when selecting motor carriers.

Additionally, TIA said the high-risk motor carrier list should identify carriers that have exceeded intervention thresholds in three or more BASICs within the Safety Measurement System, or that exceed thresholds in any of the most critical categories, including unsafe driving.

“Providing this information transparently would equip industry participants with actionable data to make more informed decisions and help prevent unsafe carriers from continuing to operate unchecked,” Burroughs said.