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Yesterday, December 2, 2015, Congress released a report detailing the results of the bicameral agreement reached concerning the terms of the surface transportation reauthorization bill commonly known as the “Drive” Act or the “FAST Act” (“Fixing America’s Surface Transportation”). The original House and Senate proposals for the Act included a number of anti-safety provisions which…

12/3/15 Update: “The FAST Act” Still Contains Anti-Safety Provisions

Members of the United States Congress are currently negotiating the final language of a transportation bill known as “the DRIVE Act.” This legislation will have a major impact on everyone using our nations’ roadways in the years to come.

The terms of the Act have been a subject of debate for some time now, and certain anti-safety provisions (such as the proposed increase in the maximum weight limit for commercial trucking) have been defeated. However, the current legislation still contains numerous provisions that must be removed because they present a threat to the health and safety of the public. Some examples include:…

Continue Reading The DRIVE Act Still Contains Multiple Anti-Safety Provisions

On February 18, 2015, I wrote about a New York City-area scheme where three individuals helped as many as 500 people cheat on the Commercial Driver’s License (“CDL”) test. More recently, a multi-agency investigation in Florida has uncovered a similar scheme involving a commercial truck driving school. The Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General, the FBI, Homeland Security and the Florida Highway Patrol joined forces to uncover the plot, which enabled unqualified drivers to receive CDLs. Ellariy Medvednik, Natalia Dontsova, Adrian Salari and Clarence Davis were all charged in connection with the investigation. These people were affiliated with Larex, Inc., a commercial truck driving school that marketed itself to Russian-speakers online.
Continue Reading More Unqualified Commercial Drivers Attain CDLs Due to Cheating Scheme

Recently, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) released a crash accountability study that focused on whether incorporating Police Accident Reports (“PARs”) in its crash fault weighting system would improve the Agency’s ability to target carriers most at-risk for crashes.

The report focused on crash accountability in the FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability (“CSA”) Program.  CSA…

Trucking companies now have access to technologies which can dramatically improve the safety of their operation, safe on fuel costs, and provide accurate feedback concerning the conduct of their drivers.  For example, products like “Smartdrive” utilize a multi-camera computer interface to simultaneously capture video footage of the driver’s actions within the cab of the truck…

Recently, three individuals pled guilty to charges arising out of a scheme to help applicants cheat on the written portion of their commercial driver’s license (“CDL”) examination.  An investigation by the U.S. Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General, in conjunction with other federal and state law enforcement agencies, revealed fraudulent CDL test-taking activities at five…

On December 16, 2014, President Obama signed Congress’ $1.1 trillion spending bill for the 2015 fiscal year.  The spending bill included the “Collins Amendment,” which was introduced by Maine Senator Susan Collins, and seeks to repeal two key provisions of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (“FMCSA”) 2013 hours of service rules.

Under the 2013…

The trucking industry is heavily regulated.  Unfortunately, those very regulations, which exist to insure the safety of the motoring public (that’s you, me and everyone else on the road), are frequently ignored by trucking companies, large and small, often with devastating results.  When a person is injured in a crash with a tractor…

Despite the American public’s overwhelming opposition to increasing the number of hours that a truck driver can work each week, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) has introduced legislation that would increase truckers’ weekly hours from 70 to 82.  The “Collins Amendment” is currently before the Appropriations Committee.

In a recent poll conducted by Lake Research Partners,…

Data reflecting a motor carrier’s safety history is presently available to the general public by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).  The FMCSA generates a carrier’s score through this data, compiled in its “Safety Measurement System” (SMS), which incorporates the results of roadside inspections and other safety-based violations – also known as  “Compliance, Safety,…