Me? In Charge?
At a recent truck show, the FMCSA booth was across from ours. They were decent people, and were there to help. Anne Ferro stopped in and we had a short chat. She is nice when you meet her in person. I have openly, and face to face disagreed with her. She is still willing to listen. On Saturday morning before the show opened, Henry and I borrowed their booth. A friend took our picture. It was funny. Then, I started thinking. What would I do in Anne Ferro's shoes? It is easy to criticize and take shots. Actually running the administration is not. Chances are President Obama would not call to offer me the job, but if he did, I have a plan.
The first thing that I would do is go after chameleon carriers. Few carriers actually get shut down by the FMCSA. Those that do, have earned it. They make the road more dangerous. They damage the reputation of the entire industry. They drive down rates. They make it harder for legitimate carriers to make a profit, while operating in compliance. Too often these carriers come right back using a different name and DOT number. Hank and Reuben Trucking should not be able to come back as Reuben and Hank Logistics after being shut down.
HOS rules can never satisfy everyone. I would make two changes. First I would allow driver to flex the 14 hour rule to 16 once a week in order to reduce rush hour congestion. In order to take this option the driver would need to take a 2 hour break, but not at a customer's location. The “5am” exception to the 34 hour restart would be eliminated. There needs to be a line in the sand somewhere. No matter where you put it drivers can run out of hours 5 minutes from somewhere, but there needs to be a line.
Mandatory detention does not go far enough. I believe when a driver is at work that driver should be getting 
paid. There are many reasons we can't keep new drivers in trucking. This eliminates one of them. It encourages dock efficiency. Efficiency is good. The driver would have to log this time on duty in order to get paid for it. Being paid while at the dock decreases the economic incentive to falsify logs. We need to take a serious look at paying drivers when they are shut down for bad weather. Too many drivers are forced to make bad safety decisions for economic reasons.
CSA is a good idea. It just needs to be tweaked. I would eliminate the DATA Q process. We have a system. It is a courtroom. No driver should be punished for a violation that they were not convicted of. The fact that they are is offensive. No nonpreventable accident should be held against a driver.
There is more work to be done. This is just the first day. It is a good start. Administrator Ferro does not have a magic wand. She can not do whatever she wants. One suggestion to Ms. Ferro. Hire a trucker. Keep that trucker as an advisor and listen.