Raising safety bar

The Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA) has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would raise the standards for passing the new-entrant safety audit.

The agency identified 11 regulations it believes are essential to safe operation of carriers in interstate commerce, and proposes that failure to comply with any one of them would result in an automatic failure of the safety audit for new carriers.

The proposed rule would improve FMCSA's ability to identify at-risk carriers and ensure that deficiencies in safety management controls are corrected before permanent registration is granted.

The proposal was published in the Federal Register on December 21, 2006. Comments are due by February 20, 2007.