What Is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)?
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is the leading federal government agency regulating commercial motor vehicles.
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the agency’s mission is “To reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses.” This mission statement underscores the FMCSA’s role in enhancing road safety through stringent regulations and oversight of the commercial transportation industry.
The benefits of the FMCSA’s regulations include improved road safety, reduced accident rates involving CMVs, and enhanced driver health and welfare. These regulations also promote fair competition among carriers by ensuring that all operators adhere to the same safety standards.
Examples of the FMCSA’s work include setting hours-of-service (HOS) regulations that limit the number of hours a commercial driver can operate to prevent fatigue-related accidents, conducting compliance reviews and safety audits of motor carriers, and maintaining the Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS) to ensure that drivers meet federal standards. Understanding the FMCSA’s role and regulations is crucial for commercial drivers and motor carriers to ensure compliance and contribute to safer roadways.
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FMCSA Issues Final Rule on Truckers’ Hours of Service
FMCSA announces final revision to trucker hours of service rules
On May 14, 2020, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of the federal Department of Transportation (DOT), announced four regulatory changes. These revisions are meant to provide truck drivers with greater flexibility while preserving the safety of commercial truck operators, manufacturers, and retailers. FMCSA Acting Administrator Jim Mullen stated that the changes were based on thousands of suggestions from drivers and other trucking industry members and comments from the public over the last two years. The agency predicts that these amendments will provide $274 million in annualized cost savings.
What Do the FMSCA Revisions Change?
The FMCSA revisions make the following changes to Hours of Service (HOS) regulations:
Expansion of the “Short-Haul” Exception: The FMCSA imposes tracking, reporting, and other requirements for commercial truck drivers, […]
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Covid and Easing of Truck Safety Regulations
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the incidents of truck crashes in the state of PA are among the highest in the nation. The FMCSA, an arm of the US Department of Transportation, is tasked not only with tracking the safety records of commercial motor vehicles, but also with regulating the industry. They are focused on reducing large truck and bus crashes, injuries and fatalities. They perform roadside inspections, investigate truck crashes and develop and enforce safety regulations.
In 2013, the FMCSA Hours of Service regulations to limit truck driver fatigue went into effect in an attempt to reduce the number of truck crashes. The rules specify the maximum number of consecutive hours that commercial truckers can drive, the frequency and length of their rest breaks and number of hours of required off duty time. […]
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Risks to Truckers During Coronavirus Epidemic
Trucking can be a lonely job during the best of circumstances. Drivers spend extended amounts of time away from family and friends while they drive their rigs across long highways. But driving during a pandemic, with all individuals asked to maintain social distancing of 6 feet, creates a whole new level of isolation. Long haul drivers are spending nearly 24 hours a day in their trucks – cooking, sleeping, “relaxing” all done within the confines of their cab.
Truck drivers are keenly aware that if they contract COVID-19, they have the potential to spread it around over the vast geographic area that they travel. They are also aware that without their continuing to work, not only do they not have an income, but ever increasing demand for shipped goods, will not be delivered. As more and more states ask their residents to stay at home, […]
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Feds abandon driver fatigue test, put “millions of lives at risk”
Feds drop another transportation safety rule, scrap sleep disorder testing
In the latest slash to federal regulations, many of which concern public safety, federal transportation agencies have dropped efforts to improve detection of sleep apnea, a breathing disorder linked to driver fatigue and deadly train and truck accidents.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) have moved to leave testing to individual transport and rail companies.
New York’s MTA and some private transportation companies made moves in the last year to test their drivers and engineers for sleep apnea, a sleep disorder linked to deadly crashes. Metro North in New York found that more than 11% of their drivers tested had sleep apnea.
What is sleep apnea? Why should drivers and engineers be tested?
Obstructive sleep apnea is a disorder that causes the throat muscles to relax and close the wind pipe during sleep. […]
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Trucking companies to increase testing for deadly sleep apnea
Truck drivers face high risk for sleep apnea
Truck drivers face high risk for sleep apneaTrucking companies may more frequently screen their drivers for sleep apnea in an effort to combat drowsy driving accidents.
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a disorder that causes breathing to start and stop during sleep, leading to less restful sleep and increased drowsiness. For drivers, especially truckers, bus drivers, or train engineers, drowsiness can become deadly.
Why test truck drivers for sleep apnea?
Truck drivers’ concern with sleep apnea is twofold. Their profession makes them both more likely to develop sleep apnea, and more at risk of death from its effects.
Driving a truck involves sitting for long periods of time, eating at truck stops along the road, and irregular sleeping schedules. Factors that can contribute to sleep apnea include obesity, smoking, bad diet, […]
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