One of the byproducts of writing this blog is that I have become, or rather, I am becoming rather well-versed in transportation politics. When the DRIVE and STRR acts were being passed by the Senate and House, I was aware of it and aware of some of the problems within the otherwise good bills. When the 2 bills went to committee, I was on top of those developments. As Transportation Secretary, Anthony Foxx rolled out new ideas (or rehashed old ones) I was aware of those also.
A proposed federal rule that would give the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration another means to score and target unsafe carriers has cleared the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
In the passage of the recent Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, congress stripped the FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) scores, calling them unfair. Now, as James Jaillet writes, the Department of Transportation has been working on this new rule since 2007.
Did the DOT know their CSA scoring system was unfair and were they working on some new reporting system that is more fair – or worse, just as unfair but somehow legal? Or is it something else?
Jaillet goes on to write,
Few details are known about what it entails. According to the agency’s regulatory summary, it would give FMCSA a new system to “determine when a motor carrier is not fit to operate.”
The rule’s final publication could still be a few years away.