As part of a “Pro-Trucker Package” announced in late June, the U.S. Department of Transportation said it is committed to combating unlawful brokers.
This week, the DOT confirmed that doing so could include moving forward with a rulemaking aimed at enforcing broker transparency regulations.
“To promote fairness and stability of the industry, FMCSA is renewing its focus on combating unlawful double brokering – a practice that directly harms drivers,” a DOT spokesperson said. “That includes reviewing the entire portfolio of regulatory actions listed in the Fall 2024 Unified Agenda, including the broker transparency rulemaking proposal.”
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has been a leader in the fight against broker fraud and general freight fraud. At House and Senate hearings this year, Pugh spoke out about the problems truckers face with double brokering and other criminal activities.
“As motor carriers are increasingly victimized by freight fraud, unpaid claims, dubious charges, unpaid loads and double brokered loads, the current lack of transparency has left them little to no means to defend themselves from these schemes,” Pugh said.
OOIDA petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in 2020 to create a broker transparency rule as one way to combat the problem. That same year, hundreds of truck drivers traveled to Washington, D.C., to protest the lack of broker transparency in the trucking industry. Truckers believe that without transparency, they are at a disadvantage in terms of receiving fair rates as well as potentially being victimized by bogus claims.
President Donald Trump, who was in his first term, paid attention to the protest and posted on Twitter, “I’m with the TRUCKERS all the way.”
Under former President Joe Biden’s administration, FMCSA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding broker transparency. That comment period ended in March with about 6,900 comments submitted. Truckers argued that broker transparency would promote fairness, while brokers argued that the regulations are outdated and “un-American.”
Although it is still unclear how the DOT plans to move forward, the agency has announced that it will take action to combat unlawful broker activities. Additionally, we now know that the broker transparency rulemaking is still on the table.
On June 27, the DOT announced a commitment to improving the profession for truck drivers by reducing burdensome regulations, modernizing driver resources and cracking down on bad actors.
The nine initiatives:
- Increase truck parking capacity
- Withdraw speed limiter rulemaking
- Increase hours-of-service flexibility
- Improve FMCSA’s driver resource page
- Reform DataQ
- Modernize National Consumer Complaint Database
- Address unlawful brokering
- Maintain ELD exemption on pre-2000 engines
- Remove “needless” regulations
OOIDA played a big role in advocating for all nine initiatives in the “Pro-Trucker Package.” LL
Credit: Source link
