Trucking news: Truckers, enforcement personnel applaud Ferro's confirmation as FMCSA chief
John D. Schulz, Contributing Editor -- Logistics Management, 11/16/2009
WASHINGTON-Despite opposition by safety advocates during her nomination, Anne S. Ferro was confirmed by the Senate and is on the job as the fifth full-time administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the agency charged with issuing safety regulations covering more than 29 million trucks of all classes.
To which nearly all of the disparate parts of the highly fragmented sectors of the $645 billion trucking industry said: "Finally. It's about time."
Ferro, a former head of the Maryland Motor Truck Association for six years and the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration before that, is a well-connected Democrat in Washington. Among her biggest supporters is Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the House Majority Leader who is very influential with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Md.
Perhaps it's because of those political connections that the trucking lobby in Washington was breathing a sigh of relief following Ferro's bruising confirmation process. She succeeds John Hill, a well-respected Republican who resigned on Jan. 20 when the Obama administration began work.
"Anne Ferro has excellent experience as a government transportation regulator in the state of Maryland that will serve her well as FMCSA Administrator," American Trucking Associations President and CEO Bill Graves told LM. "She also has extensive knowledge of the trucking industry and a commitment to highway safety."
Only in Washington can "extensive knowledge" of the industry in which a person is charged with oversight be taken by some as code for "conflict of interest."
Because of Ferro's ties to the trucking industry, activists groups such as Public Citizen and Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT) opposed her nomination. That opposition gained some traction when the nation's most influential newspaper, The New York Times, ran an editorial urging Congress to derail her nomination. The Times claimed that Ferro, while leading the Maryland state trucking association, was "supporting the trucking industry's efforts to thwart and defeat policies and programs needed to protect the public and promote the health and safety of truck drivers."
To which the group that represents law enforcement personnel that actually enforce highway laws regarding truck drivers said, in effect: "Hogwash."
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, the coalition of local, state, provincial, territorial and federal motor carrier safety officials and industry representatives from the United States, Canada, and Mexico that promotes commercial truck safety, heartily applauded Ferro's confirmation.
Buzzy France, president of CVSA, said Ferro has "an excellent understanding of how government, law enforcement and industry need to work together to solve problems." Moreover, he said, Ferro will be "a great advocate for safety."
Ferro drew criticism from labor and safety groups for her past ties to the trucking industry. But she is hardly the first of the four FMCSA administrators to have dealings with the industry in the past. Most notably, Joe Clapp, who was arguably the most effective of the four, came to FMCSA after a decades-long career at Roadway Express where he became chairman of that $3 billion company before it was bought out by then-Yellow Corp.
The FMCSA head's job is that of a technocrat who must be well versed in the latest safety devices, new technologies, esoteric rules and regulations dating back to the 1930s in some cases, as well as the economics and structure of the industry. Trucking has been in a three-year slump because of the national economic recession. So any new administrator must be aware of the costs of any new regulations placed on the struggling industry right now, lobbyists said.
"I think she's really qualified," said Randy Mullett, vice president of government affairs for Con-way Inc., the $5.2 billion trucking company. Her background at the Maryland truck association, the Maryland DMV and state and local politics gives her a big leg up in her new job, Mullett added. "She is uniquely qualified to look at this mode from very different angles than people who have been in that spot. She brings a different perspective to the job."
People who dealt with Ferro from her time managing the Maryland Motor Truck Association say her focus has always been on safety even to the point of arguing with some of her members on issues.
The big issue before FMCSA is the hours of service regulations affecting truck drivers. A change enacted six years ago has modernized those 65-year-old regulations. But because of court challenges by Public Citizen and others, those rules are being re-examined and likely will have to endure more challenges in the courts.
Last Oct. 26, FMCSA entered into a settlement with Public Citizen, the Teamsters and others challenging the HOS rewrite. FMCSA has nine months to review its current rule and up to 21 months to issue a final rule to replace the current one. Until then the current rules-allowing for up to 11 hours driving in a 15-hour on-duty day-remain in effect.
The trucking industry will in all likelihood argue that the HOS changes already in place have made truckers more, not less, safe. The industry points to its safety record-truck-related fatalities have decreased 19 percent since the new HOS rules took effect in 2003 while truck-related injuries have fallen 13 percent since 2004. Despite an increase in number of trucks and miles driven, the accident rate per-mile involving heavy trucks is at an all-time low right now.
The trucking industry does not need this uncertainty. The sector has been hammered on Wall Street. The nation's largest trucking company, YRC Worldwide, has lost in excess of $2 billion in the last 10 quarters and recently announced plans to issue 2 billion new shares of stock in a debt-for-equity swap to reduce its debt service.
Some safety advocates have accused FMCSA of having too cozy a relationship with the industry and of putting the industry's economic interests ahead of those of the public. But trucking industry officials say the industry has backed such costly measures such as mandatory drug and alcohol testing, creation of the Commercial Driver's License standards, anti-lock brakes and other technology breakthroughs as reasons for the lower truck accident rates.
Going forward, one can expect the industry to back installation of electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) and other devices to help rid the industry of unsafe drivers and trucks. With out-of-court settlements involving truck-related fatalities reaching well into the millions of dollars these days, truckers say it is an economic certainty that unsafe vehicles will wreck a business as well as their trucks if a fatal accident happens.
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