Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024:
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday approved two pieces of trucking-related legislation.
One bill, the Household Goods Shipping Consumer Protection Act (link to the passed version is here), aims to combat freight fraud by clarifying the authority of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to assess civil penalties for violations of laws and regulations. It also requires that brokers, freight forwarders, and carriers provide a valid business address to FMCSA in order to register for authority.
The passage of the bill by the committee was applauded by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.
"Freight fraud committed by criminals and scam artists has been devastating to many small business truckers simply trying to make a living in a tough freight market,” said OOIDA President Todd Spencer. “OOIDA and the 150,000 small-business truckers we represent applaud the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee for its bipartisan approach in providing FMCSA better tools to root out fraudulent actors, which are also harmful to consumers and highway safety.”
[Related: UPDATE: Would-be FMCSA registration hackers claim to fight fraud with latest phishing expedition]
The bill has been endorsed by the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), American Trucking Associations’ Moving & Storage Conference (ATA-MSC), OOIDA, the National Association of Small Trucking Companies (NASTC), Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), Institute for Safer Trucking (IST) and Road Safe America.
