Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024:
FMCSA reopens comment period on proposed delay of broker financial responsibility rules
Following its announcement earlier this month that it plans to delay the compliance date of the long-awaited final rule that changes various aspects of the financial responsibility requirements for brokers and freight forwarders, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is reopening the comment period on the proposed delay for an additional week.
In the Nov. 4 notice, FMCSA said its forthcoming updated registration system “will be used to accept filings and track notifications, and this functionality," necessary for some aspects of the new rules, "will not be added to its legacy systems.” The new registration system, however, will not be ready by the original Jan. 16, 2025, compliance date for certain provisions in the broker rule. As such, the agency proposed to delay the compliance date for those provisions for a year, to Jan. 16, 2026.
Provisions of the final rule that would be affected by the proposed delay include one that owner-operators and other small carriers have long waited for -- namely the immediate suspension of broker/freight forwarder operating authority when a broker or forwarder’s available financial security/bond amount falls below $75,000.
The comment period was initially open for 15 days, from Nov. 4 to Nov. 19, receiving just nine comments. The comment period is now reopened through Nov. 29. Comments can be filed here.
In a Federal Register notice published Nov. 21, FMCSA said it received a request from the Small Business in Transportation Coalition seeking an extension of the comment period. The agency said it “believes it is in the interest of the public to allow for public comment on this proposal, and accordingly reopens the comment period for all comments on the NPRM until November 29, 2024.”
Michael Boston of the National Owner Operators Association, commenting on behalf of the organization’s members, he noted, signaled opposition to the proposed compliance-date delay. “We believe that this delay is unnecessary and counterproductive, as the FMCSA has had ample time to plan and implement the necessary system updates and training,” he said.
Because the final rule was published in November 2023, Boston said “FMCSA had more than a year to either adjust existing infrastructure or accelerate development of its forthcoming online system to meet the January 2025 deadline. The proposal suggests that further delay is necessary, but regulated entities have long anticipated compliance with the rule, which makes this proposed one-year delay excessive.”
He added that delaying the compliance date “disproportionately impacts smaller operators, brokers, and freight forwarders who require updated systems to compete on a level playing field.”
Boston also noted that FMCSA doesn’t provide enough justification for why the delay is needed, and added that training and familiarization for the new system, when available, can be streamlined to shorten the delay.
[Related: What you need to know about filing on a broker's bond]
A commenter writing as J Brooks was also not pleased with FMCSA’s proposed delay.
“You want to extend this rulemaking so that brokers can have another year of screwing over carriers and owner-operators ... so 'the regulated can get familiar with an online system,'” he said. “You are asking us to support 'learning time' when owner-operators are struggling to provide for their families and keep their business open in a safe and effective manner? No, we cannot support this extended deadline. It needs to be implemented now. That way, the FMCSA can start working on enforcing the rule immediately instead of creating bureaucratic red tape to delay the process and waste precious time, which is a very ineffective management of a precious resource.”
Seemingly the lone commenter in favor of the delay so far was Michael Ravnitzky, who said the extension “helps ensure a smooth transition to the new online registration system. This extension is a smart decision because it provides brokers and freight forwarders more time to get acquainted with the new system, ensuring that they comply effectively.”
Ravnitzky added that the delay would be especially beneficial for small-business brokers and financial forwarders who “often have fewer resources to adapt to new regulations.”
[Related: FMCSA seeks to delay long-awaited rule aimed at brokers who 'do not intend to pay' carriers]
Senate passes bill to streamline TSA credentialing
The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would allow workers to apply existing valid background checks to multiple credentialing programs managed by the Transportation Security Administration, such as the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) and Hazardous Materials Endorsement (HME) programs.
The Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act has received bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress. It was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), Jon Tester (D-Montana), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska) and Angus King (I-Maine). It passed the Senate unanimously Thursday.
The American Trucking Associations has long been a proponent of the legislation.
“After years of paying the price for an inefficient credentialing system, relief is finally within sight for truck drivers and other essential transportation workers who keep our supply chain running,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. “The Senate’s passage of the Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act is a victory for commonsense and puts us on the verge of eliminating unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles imposed by the federal government that waste time and money.”
The bill does not make any modifications to the back-end security threat assessment conducted on individual applicants, ensuring that they undergo the same level of review as they do under current law.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, led by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and the House Committee on Homeland Security, led by Congressmen Mark Green (R-Tennessee) and Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), previously voted to advance the bill. It now awaits final passage by the full House before heading to the President’s desk for a signature.
[Related: Congress moves on bills to ease vets' access to CDLs, streamline TSA credentialing]
Truck Parking Club hits 1,000 locations in 46 states
Evan Shelley, co-founder and CEO of Truck Parking Club, announced Thursday that the company has added its 1,000th Property Member location, expanding the company’s network to 46 states and 24,000 truck parking spaces.
Using the company’s website, truck drivers can book parking spaces at locations across the country. Some locations offer paid parking by the day, week or even month.
“When I started this company two years ago, I had no idea the amount of work it would take to get to this point,” Shelley said. “It took months to add our first few locations, and to earn the trust of a handful of drivers to the point where they would book with us. Because of the hard work of our tremendous team, half of which are former drivers, we’re able to celebrate this milestone on the way to helping solve the truck parking shortage.”
Shelley added that the company’s goal is to expand to the point where the average driver only has to spend 10 minutes or less to find parking, no matter where they are. Today, that average according to industry data is about 56 minutes.
[Related: Truck Parking Club turns free spaces paid: Is this the future of parking?]
Driver earns recognition for helping feed stranded people after Hurricane Helene
Maverick Transportation truck driver Andrew Inlow, out of Boonesville, Mississippi, has been named a Highway Angel by the Truckload Carriers Association for helping feed hundreds of people in the Asheville, North Carolina, area in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Andrew Inlow
Inlow and the other truckers were parked at the TA Truck Stop in Candler, right outside Asheville. The entire region was severely affected by Hurricane Helene. With no cell phone reception, roads closed, no power and no stores open nearby, the truckers had to get creative to eat.
“We had a driver who was delivering hamburgers to restaurants in the area, so he actually opened up his unit and pulled out a box of hamburgers and started cooking for all the truck drivers,” Inlow said.
The next day, Inlow drove a group of the truckers into Asheville looking for food. When they arrived, they decided to buy another grill and start handing out food.
“The food’s gonna go bad anyway, so that kind of kicked everything into motion,” Inlow said.
Inlow ended up going door to door at a nearby Days Inn asking guests if they needed food. One of the guests, Dianna Sains, who was en route helping her son, daughter-in-law, and young grandchildren move across the country, overheard another driver talking about the potential food. She and her family were stranded at the Days Inn with no power.
“They had no food and no real water for almost three days,” Inman said. As a result, Sains came to the TA Truck Stop and connected with Inlow, who made sure her family was taken care of.
“She got all excited because these big scary truck drivers were trying to give away food,” he said.
Inlow also bought chips, snacks and drinks from the TA for the others, spending about $1,000 of his own money. In all, he thinks he and the other truckers fed about 150 stranded people over the four-and-a-half days they were in the area.
“I hardly ate,” Inlow said. “I actually had drivers that I had become friends with who forced me to eat because my mind was on everybody else.”
Without the help of Inlow and the other drivers that also volunteered time and resources, this small community would have felt the impact more significantly in those initial hours and days, TCA said.
“I always tried to stay on the positive side, because there’s no reason to be negative and cause anybody to be negative,” Inlow said. “I just did what anybody else should do.”
[Related: 'God had me there for a reason': Highway Angel saves six in Hurricane Helene floodwaters]
