Criticism of FMCSA is Baseless

Unions and anti-truck groups are opposing President Obama's appointment of Anne Ferro to head the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) because, as President of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, she supported the truck driver hours-of-service (HOS) regulations that have been in effect for the last 5 years.

But supporters of the current HOS regulations deserves praise, not scorn.

The Teamsters claim the U.S. Department of Transportation's FMCSA, which drafted the regulations, failed "to improve the safety record of commercial vehicles." Three anti-truck groups joined the Teamsters' chorus. Did the FMCSA fail to improve truck safety? Nothing could be further from the truth.

While operating under new hours of service rules for the last 5 years, the trucking industry's safety performance dramatically improved. Large truck crash, injury and fatality rates have reached their lowest point since the DOT began recording those statistics in 1975. Figures released by the Federal Highway Administration indicate that the truck-involved fatality rate in 2007 declined 5.8 percent to 2.12 per 100 million miles from 2.25 per 100 million miles in 2006.

There are obvious reasons why the current rules are safer than the previous rules. The changes to the rules increased the drivers' mandated rest period from 8 hours per day to 10 hours per day. Work hours were reduced from 15 or more non-consecutive hours per day to a maximum of 14 hours per day, which must be consecutive.

So any nominee to the DOT who supports the current HOS regulations deserves a leg up in the nomination approval process.

The Teamsters and anti-truck groups also said a trucking industry employee should not lead a trucking regulatory agency. But the same naysayers had no objections when union employees were named to lead the Federal Railroad Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, despite the very real conflicts of interest apparent between unions and the federal agencies that regulate their activities.