The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is working on the broker transparency issue “very intently” and plans to start a rulemaking soon, the agency’s administrator says.
FMCSA Administrator Robin Hutcheson recently sat down with Land Line Now’s Scott Thompson and discussed a variety of trucking issues, including speed limiters and broker transparency.
“Your listeners should know that we have quite a lot of going on with the broker space and really are seeking to understand what the biggest issues are and looking at what our regulatory authorities and responsibilities are in this area,” Hutcheson said.
OOIDA petitioned FMCSA in May 2020, asking the agency to begin the rulemaking process for more transparency in trucking transactions with brokers. The petition asked the agency:
- To require brokers to automatically provide an electronic copy of each transaction record within 48 hours after the contractual service has been completed.
- To explicitly prohibit brokers from including any provision that requires a carrier to waive their rights to access the transaction records.
Regulation CFR 371.3 already requires that brokers keep records of each transaction with a carrier and that each party to the transaction has a right to view these records.
In March, FMCSA notified OOIDA that it had granted the petition and would soon be publishing a rulemaking regarding broker transparency. The agency also granted a petition from the Small Business in Transportation Coalition. At the same time, FMCSA informed the Transportation Intermediaries Association that it was denying its petition to eliminate CFR 371.3.
FMCSA is expected to unveil a notice of proposed rulemaking soon.
“We are working on this issue very intently, and we will be sharing more information about our rulemaking agenda come this spring,” Hutcheson said.
Speed limiters
Hutcheson also told Land Line Now that a notice of supplemental proposed rulemaking regarding speed limiters isn’t expected until the late summer or early fall.
Last year, FMCSA issued an advance notice of supplemental proposed rulemaking that considers requiring commercial motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 26,001 pounds or more to be equipped with speed-limiting devices.
The notice garnered about 15,600 comments, with the majority coming from truck drivers opposed to a mandate.
Hutcheson said the overwhelming number of comments played a role in delaying the next step, which had been forecasted for June, until later this year.
The full interview with Hutcheson can he heard here. LL
Credit: Source link
