Leaders in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and Congress got an earful after a coalition of carrier vetting platforms put aside egos and competition for a day and advocated for real safety improvements in trucking.
Representatives from Highway, Verified Carrier, GenLogs, Descartes, FreightValidate, Truckstop, and the Transported Asset Protection Association went to Washington, D.C., last month on what could go down as the most auspicious single days in trucking's recent history.
Dale Prax, longtime FMCSA "worst critic," told Overdrive that "all these different vetting platforms working in siloes doesn't work," and that a serious effort to clean up the industry would require sharing intelligence between platforms.
It resulted in a meeting in D.C. on May 14, the same day FMCSA began its Motus launch and the Supreme Court decided a shocker of a broker liability case.
Prax said during a meeting with FMCSA officials, "coincidentally Scott Cornell [chair of TAPA] said they just released the SCOTUS" decision on Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, upending the broker safety liability paradigm.
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The mood in the room immediately shifted. "That moment was almost eerie," said Prax.
"We need to get better at vetting, not just for fraud, but for safety," he told the room.
Outside DOT headquarters in Washington, D.C. Left to right: Alex Panfilov of Verified Carrier, Danielle Spinelli of GenLogs, Scott Cornell from TAPA, Dale Prax of FreightValidate, Tom Cornett with Descartes, and Shawn Rasmore from Truckstop.com. Also present were reps from Highway and The Bannon Report.Dale Prax
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Prax and company met with FMCSA's fraud division, its legal team, reps from the Pentagon's USTRANSCOM, which handles military freight, and staffers of House and Senate Republicans.
"Washington is paying attention in ways it hasn't before," Cornell said.
Cornell authored part of the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, which would move the U.S. closer to a coordinated federal cargo theft enforcement mandate.
"On the legislative side, CORCA is gaining real momentum — Senator Chuck Grassley successfully reinvigorated the push after some lulls, and there's encouraging enthusiasm on the Hill to get it across the finish line," said Cornell.
The recently advanced BUILD America 250 Act highway bill contained other potentially supplementary cargo-theft provisions, too. It would create an advisory task force to help in the combat.
However, not everyone is on board. Prax said he only met with Republican staffers on the hill, but that most bills have bipartisan support, and he encouraged all lawmakers to find co-sponsors among Democrats. CORCA, which includes provisions about retail crime, not just cargo theft, hit opposition from civil rights orgs.
"There has been some activist opposition to CORCA recently, but we feel strongly that the bill works in the best interests of businesses and consumers alike," said Cornell. "After passing the House with overwhelming support, lawmakers clearly agree."
A handful of civil rights groups have opposed CORCA, writing Congress and the Joe Biden White House in 2024 concerned that year's version of the bill relied "on old, outdated data and, as a result, reacts to fear over facts to promote failed punitive policies that would further criminalize poverty and potentially cause disproportionate harm on Black and Brown communities."
But civil rights groups aren't the only activists fighting to shape policy. Prax, Cornell, and others felt sure their own colation got through to FMCSA and Congressmembers that freight fraud and safety need action now.
"FMCSA is exploring how to partner with the private sector to place better controls around the sale of MC numbers, as well as applications for new ones, which is exactly the kind of public-private coordination the industry has needed," said Cornell. "While the new system, MOTUS, is definitely an upgrade to the FMCSA screening technology, there are still additional advancements needed in the technology in order to have a notable impact on cargo theft."
Alex Panfilov, founder of carrier-vetting platform Verified Carrier, said lawmakers are taking notice, also echoing the need for private sector safety and fraud watchdogs to work with the government.
"The Senate offices we've been in conversations with are beginning to recognize the gravity and scope of transportation fraud," he said, "not just the headline theft numbers, but the more complex vulnerabilities that don't always make it into the policy conversation.
"The private sector has both the data and the operational experience to inform solutions that could make a real difference in this fight, and they seem to recognize that."
Panfilov lauded the current administration as "excellent about reaching out to the industry, tapping into experienced industry people and listening to the difficulties in an effort to find solutions."
That was the impression FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs and Transportation Seceretary Sean Duffy made at the Mid America Trucking Show, where they walked the floor taking impromptu questions from attendees, offering contact info of FMCSA top brass.
According to Prax, it's emblematic of the big change in the executive branch. Rather than longtime lobbyists setting policy, today Duffy has his ear to the ground on social media.
"Duffy takes a different approach and listens to Twitter," said Prax, who denounced the typical cadence of "fly-ins," which function more like a "meet and greet" than a substantive policy discussion.
"This administration listens more to the individuals and articles and people on a smaller scale than having some lobbyist push policy down their throat," he said.
More drivers, too, are getting active, he added. He pointed to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association's fightingfortruckers.com, which helps streamline the process for writing your legislator.
He didn't sugarcoat things in meetings, either. FMCSA, long lagging behind in issuing safety ratings to carriers or addressing fraud, had been "so negligent in your job we had to do it ourselves," Prax said he told them.
[Related: FMCSA gets an earful about bad brokers, enforcement from its 'worst critic']
Panfilov said he thought the group ultimately got through to FMCSA. "Momentum is starting to pick up, but the next step is making sure it translates into policy that reflects how freight fraud actually works on the ground," he said.
As the "fraud apocalypse" spurred carrier vetting platforms to make untold money on big broker subscription contracts and to virtually "disqualify" more and more good carriers from hauling freight for those subscribers, Overdrive readers and our past coverage haven't been shy of criticism.
Yet Prax said recently that, thanks to FMCSA Administrator Barrs' invitation, the platforms have put egos aside and actually worked to share intelligence and improve the safety and fairness, too, rather than just focus on competing for those big contracts from their subscribers.
"It's so good to have competitors really coming together," he said.
