For years, truck drivers have complained about
being pushed by dispatchers and others to
violate federal regulations to meet unrealistic
delivery deadlines. Soon, truckers may have a
way to push back.
A proposal published in the May 13 Federal
Register targets “coercion” against truckers and
would hit offenders — including motor carriers,
logistics operators and shippers — with
penalties of up to $11,000 per incident, and
possible revocation of the operating authority of
a trucking company, freight broker or forwarder.
The proposed rule is the latest step toward
extending the regulatory reach of the Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration beyond
trucking to the broader supply chain. The
FMCSA is looking into issues such as driver
detention to determine how action or inaction
by shippers, consignees and other supply chain
partners can affect truck driver health, well-
being and safety.
“Safety has got to be part of the supply chain,
part of logistics planning, just as sustainability
and efficiency are,” FMCSA Administrator Anne
S. Ferro said during a panel discussion at the
annual meeting of the Transportation and
Logistics Council in Nashville, Tennessee, in
March.
The FMCSA began studying the effects of
excessive detention at shipper and receiver
sites in 2012, recently completing the first
phase of its investigation. The second phase of
the detention study is set to begin shortly.
The agency is also studying the connection
between detention, driver pay and highway
safety. At the Transportation Research Board
meeting in Washington in January, Ferro called
detention “not just inefficiency in the supply
chain, but inefficiency that is placed on the
back of truckers and for which they are not
compensated.”
The Obama administration included language
in the Grow America Act — the White House’s
$302 billion surface transportation spending
proposal — that would require truck drivers who
are paid per mile also be paid for non-driving
time at an hourly rate not less than the federal
minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour.
Although the Obama bill may have less chance
of advancing in Congress than a fuels tax
increase, the driver pay provision does indicate
how the administration is thinking about driver
and truck safety issues.
Ferro said Congress gave the agency a freer
hand to oversee supply chains in the 2012
Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century
Act or MAP-21, by ordering the agency to issue
an anti-coercion rule, along with an electronic
logging mandate. MAP-21, “extends the
agency’s authority to penalize into the shipping
world,” Ferro told the T&LC, ensuring “a holistic
approach to safety for that last mile.”
In its rule-making, the FMCSA goes farther than
Congress ordered. The agency’s proposed rule
would cover not just Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Regulations and Hazardous Materials
Regulations but the commercial regulations
governing motor carrier practices — such as
obtaining insurance and operating authority —
the FMCSA inherited from the Interstate
Commerce Commission.
The coercion rule-making should put
transportation intermediaries and shippers —
as well as trucking companies — on alert. In its
proposal, the FMCSA said Congress in MAP-21
decided to expand the reach of motor carrier
safety regulations “from the supply side … to
the demand side,” including shippers, receivers,
brokers, freight forwarders “and others that hire
motor carriers to provide transportation and
whose actions have an impact on CMV
(commercial motor vehicle) safety.”
The rule-making targets any company that
threatens drivers with “loss of a job, denial of
subsequent loads, reduced payment, denied
access to the best trips, etc.” for refusing to
operate a truck under circumstances they know
or should know would violate federal truck
safety rules.
For example, insisting a driver deliver a load on
a schedule that would be impossible to meet
without violating hours of service regulations,
or pressuring a driver to operate an unsafe
vehicle. The coercion rule would apply to
shippers or brokers when they assume the role
“normally reserved to the driver’s employer,”
the FMCSA said in its proposal. For example,
directing a driver to finish a run within a certain
time. That shipper or broker “may commit
coercion if it fails to heed a driver’s objection
that the request would require him/her to break
the rules,” the agency said. “When directing the
driver’s actions, these entities ‘should have
known’ whether the driver could complete the
run” without violating the work rules.
The driver would have to object for a threat to
constitute coercion, the agency said, asking for
comments on how drivers might modify their
interactions with shippers, receivers and
intermediaries in response to the rule.
Comments are due by Aug. 11, 2014.
The proposed rule could certainly lead to
changes in how shippers, receivers, brokers
and carrier dispatchers interact with drivers.
Some trucking companies may decide their
dispatch staff needs additional training.
Under the proposed rule, drivers would have 60
days to file a written coercion complaint with an
FMCSA division administrator, either the
administrator for the state where the coercion
occurred or the one for the state where the
company involved has its principal place of
business. Complaints sent to the FMCSA by e-
mail, letter, social media or phone will be
forwarded to the appropriate state FMCSA
official.
The division administrator would then
determine whether a complaint was “non-
frivolous” and investigate accusations of
coercion, the FMCSA said in its proposal.
Contact William B. Cassidy at
wcassidy@joc.com
being pushed by dispatchers and others to
violate federal regulations to meet unrealistic
delivery deadlines. Soon, truckers may have a
way to push back.
A proposal published in the May 13 Federal
Register targets “coercion” against truckers and
would hit offenders — including motor carriers,
logistics operators and shippers — with
penalties of up to $11,000 per incident, and
possible revocation of the operating authority of
a trucking company, freight broker or forwarder.
The proposed rule is the latest step toward
extending the regulatory reach of the Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration beyond
trucking to the broader supply chain. The
FMCSA is looking into issues such as driver
detention to determine how action or inaction
by shippers, consignees and other supply chain
partners can affect truck driver health, well-
being and safety.
“Safety has got to be part of the supply chain,
part of logistics planning, just as sustainability
and efficiency are,” FMCSA Administrator Anne
S. Ferro said during a panel discussion at the
annual meeting of the Transportation and
Logistics Council in Nashville, Tennessee, in
March.
The FMCSA began studying the effects of
excessive detention at shipper and receiver
sites in 2012, recently completing the first
phase of its investigation. The second phase of
the detention study is set to begin shortly.
The agency is also studying the connection
between detention, driver pay and highway
safety. At the Transportation Research Board
meeting in Washington in January, Ferro called
detention “not just inefficiency in the supply
chain, but inefficiency that is placed on the
back of truckers and for which they are not
compensated.”
The Obama administration included language
in the Grow America Act — the White House’s
$302 billion surface transportation spending
proposal — that would require truck drivers who
are paid per mile also be paid for non-driving
time at an hourly rate not less than the federal
minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour.
Although the Obama bill may have less chance
of advancing in Congress than a fuels tax
increase, the driver pay provision does indicate
how the administration is thinking about driver
and truck safety issues.
Ferro said Congress gave the agency a freer
hand to oversee supply chains in the 2012
Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century
Act or MAP-21, by ordering the agency to issue
an anti-coercion rule, along with an electronic
logging mandate. MAP-21, “extends the
agency’s authority to penalize into the shipping
world,” Ferro told the T&LC, ensuring “a holistic
approach to safety for that last mile.”
In its rule-making, the FMCSA goes farther than
Congress ordered. The agency’s proposed rule
would cover not just Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Regulations and Hazardous Materials
Regulations but the commercial regulations
governing motor carrier practices — such as
obtaining insurance and operating authority —
the FMCSA inherited from the Interstate
Commerce Commission.
The coercion rule-making should put
transportation intermediaries and shippers —
as well as trucking companies — on alert. In its
proposal, the FMCSA said Congress in MAP-21
decided to expand the reach of motor carrier
safety regulations “from the supply side … to
the demand side,” including shippers, receivers,
brokers, freight forwarders “and others that hire
motor carriers to provide transportation and
whose actions have an impact on CMV
(commercial motor vehicle) safety.”
The rule-making targets any company that
threatens drivers with “loss of a job, denial of
subsequent loads, reduced payment, denied
access to the best trips, etc.” for refusing to
operate a truck under circumstances they know
or should know would violate federal truck
safety rules.
For example, insisting a driver deliver a load on
a schedule that would be impossible to meet
without violating hours of service regulations,
or pressuring a driver to operate an unsafe
vehicle. The coercion rule would apply to
shippers or brokers when they assume the role
“normally reserved to the driver’s employer,”
the FMCSA said in its proposal. For example,
directing a driver to finish a run within a certain
time. That shipper or broker “may commit
coercion if it fails to heed a driver’s objection
that the request would require him/her to break
the rules,” the agency said. “When directing the
driver’s actions, these entities ‘should have
known’ whether the driver could complete the
run” without violating the work rules.
The driver would have to object for a threat to
constitute coercion, the agency said, asking for
comments on how drivers might modify their
interactions with shippers, receivers and
intermediaries in response to the rule.
Comments are due by Aug. 11, 2014.
The proposed rule could certainly lead to
changes in how shippers, receivers, brokers
and carrier dispatchers interact with drivers.
Some trucking companies may decide their
dispatch staff needs additional training.
Under the proposed rule, drivers would have 60
days to file a written coercion complaint with an
FMCSA division administrator, either the
administrator for the state where the coercion
occurred or the one for the state where the
company involved has its principal place of
business. Complaints sent to the FMCSA by e-
mail, letter, social media or phone will be
forwarded to the appropriate state FMCSA
official.
The division administrator would then
determine whether a complaint was “non-
frivolous” and investigate accusations of
coercion, the FMCSA said in its proposal.
Contact William B. Cassidy at
wcassidy@joc.com
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