A "new," owner-op focused Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration descended upon the Mid-America Trucking Show last week, and while Overdrive reported most of the bigger agency news already, the real story unfolded away from the main stage.
Our new video hammers home exactly what's so different about what FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs called the "new" FMCSA.
The American Trucking Associations didn't really show at MATS, aside from a state trucking association or two.
Instead, small biz trucking and owner-ops took center stage, with FMCSA staff sharing the stage with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy himself making some spot market predictions.
(Spoiler alert: Duffy's expecting you to have a good year as the department cracks down on foreign drivers and bad CDL schools.)
[Related: DOT's Duffy: 'Spot rates are going to go up' as FMCSA cracks down on fraudsters]
Barrs and FMCSA didn't just say they're going to change, they showed it.
Just a few days after Overdrive reporting revealed an alleged ELD cheating ring at a big Chicago-area fleet, Barrs talked about cracking down on "chameleon ELDs," perhaps the first-ever use of the term.
Barrs vowed to do everything in his power to tackle fraud, and even advocated for things beyond the scope of his agency.
He did so by embracing Dalilah Coleman, the little girl whose near-death experience in a crash with a non-domiciled driver sparked legislation that hopes to enshrine FMCSA's most aggressive recent moves into law.
Check out the video below to not only get the news, but a real feel for what it was like on the showroom floor as Barrs and Duffy walked among the crowd at trucking's biggest event.
