FMCSA Is Not Reducing Accidents
As I have stated again and again, in my 24 years in the truck safety/compliance business, I have never seen a more aggressive, restrictive, hyper-regulatory version of the FMCSA than this Ferro/LaHood/Foxx/Obama crew. Nonetheless, as long as they are reducing accidents on the highways, it’s all worth it. That’s the argument, right? FMCSA is pounding the regulated industry, which is mostly small businesses, with countless invasive and complicated regulations. In return, the number of highway deaths and injuries caused by trucks will go down.
The hell of it is, though, truck crash deaths are not going down. They are not going down! If anything they are going up!!! I wrote about this before, here. Now, here is yet another government chart, showing evidence of the Ferro Failure. This comes to us from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is a sister agency of FMCSA. NHTSA issues rules pertaining to the construction of cars and trucks, as well as counting all highway accidents.
To recount the stats in the chart, we have
Fatalities in Crashes Involving Large Trucks
2009 3,380
2010 3,686
2011 3,781
2012 3,921
Injuries in Crashes Involving Large Trucks
2009 74,000
2010 80,000
2011 88,000
2012 104,000
The NHTSA “Quick Facts” chart I linked above only goes back to 2010, but I dug out the 2009 stats from another chart found on FMCSA’s own website, and added them to the numbers above.
According to their statistics, in 2011, there were 3,781 people killed in truck accidents. In 2012, 3,921 people were killed in truck accidents. So, that’s about a 3.7% increase.
Then the truck crash injuries. In 2011, 88,000 people were injured in truck crashes. In 2012, 104,000 people were injured. That is an 18% increase! That is a crazy high increase. That’s how many people NHTSA says got injured in 2012.
These increases are outpacing any corresponding increases in car accidents. With all of the Ferro initiatives, such cellphone bans, CSA 2010, EOBR mandates, the war on buses, more restrictive hours of service rules, increases in civil penalties, liberally putting carriers out of business, truck fatalities and injuries should be plunging. They are not.
As I stated before, my theory is the FMCSA’s totalitarian tactics are driving safe, qualified drivers out of the industry. In turn, they are being replaced by inexperienced drivers, who are having more accidents. That’s my guess, but it could be something else. Regardless, this recent NHTSA chart just reinforces what I already thought: FMCSA’s uber-regulatory tactics are not making us safer. They are making us less safe. If only they could see that.
The statist argument espoused by the FMCSA is we should be happy to trade in some of our liberty in order to be safer. Some of us will never trade in our liberty for any kind of temporary safety, but a larger number of you will. These statistics show us we are trading in our liberty for nothing. There is no safety. There is no reduction in accidents. We are accepting a draconian regulatory regime in exchange for false and empty promises. The reality is we are just as likely, if not more likely, to get killed by a truck on the highway now, as we were before this blizzard of Obama regulations, mandates, rulemakings, fines, and penalties.
EOBRs
I said I would keep the blog current, and again have failed. So much to do. So few hours in the day. At any rate, I have been getting many questions lately about the status of EOBRs. I believe you will need to have EOBRs by January 1, 2017. There. Did that get your attention? How did I calculate that?
The FMCSA has issued a proposed rulemaking, which closes for comments on May 27, 2014. If you follow the instructions in the rulemaking, you may comment on the proposed rule. Not that it will matter; whatever rules they are going to issue have already been decided, regardless of what “Rich in Iowa” thinks. Nevertheless, if it makes you feel better, then by all means comment.
In the rule, it states that the proposed rule will become effective 2 years following the publication of the Final Rule. What’s that mean? Once the comment period on the proposed rule ends (May 27, 2014), then the agency will begin writing the Final Rule. The substance of the Final Rule will be nearly identical to the Proposed Rule with possibly a few minor changes. The agency must respond to all the comments submitted. They must proof-read the rulemaking, and then have the lawyers proof-read it again, to make sure if they get sued, the rule will not be tossed out by the Courts, which has already happened once. In my expert opinion, this will take 6-9 months, which will put you around the beginning of 2015 before you see the Final Rule.
Going by what is already in there, 2 years from 2015 is 2017, so I would expect January 1, 2017, everyone will need to have the EOBRs… give or take 6 months. That date could change, of course, if it takes them longer or shorter to issue the Final Rule, or they may give the industry an extra year grace period. I would absolutely not count on that, they may even make it shorter.
This is going to happen. It is a law. EOBRs were in the last highway authorization law, known as MAP-21. The FMCSA must issue this rulemaking. Mind you, they, along with the ATA, convinced a pliant Congress to put it into the law. Also, let’s not fool ourselves. This law has absolutely nothing to do with safety. However, like countless other rules, it is a rule, and the FMCSA will put you out of business if you don’t comply with it. My recommendations are wait until the Final Rule has been issued. The Final Rule will contain all of the technical specifications for these EOBRs. You don’t want to spend tens of thousands of dollars on EOBRs which do A, B, and C, only to find out when FMCSA finally issues their Final Rule they need to do A, B, C, and D, and it’s going to cost you thousands of dollars to retrofit your EOBRs to do D.
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Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Manager with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Email him at [email protected].
Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Comments, questions
I just went into the blog for the first time in a month, and I noticed something. I used to get notified via email when someone posted a comment. Apparently, that’s not happening anymore, as there were a bunch of comments I didn’t know about. So, my apologies for my tardy replies. At any rate, I try to answer all questions, but the timeliness of my answers always depends on how busy I am, and the complexity of the question.
As always, questions accompanied by the offer of payment are moved to the front of the line.
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Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Manager with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Email him at [email protected].
Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.
