What is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)?
Published: October 8, 2007
Established in 2000, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (a separate administration within the U.S. Department of Transportation) is focused on reducing crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses.
The FMCSA establishes many rules and regulations regarding the trucking industry as well as supports numerous programs such as the Commercial Driver’s License Program which develops, monitors, and ensures compliance with the commercial driver licensing standards for drivers, carriers, and States.
Extensive and thorough can best describe this site as it lists a vast number of truck driver regulations. A sampling includes: hours of service for drivers, special training requirements, preservation of records, minimum periodic inspection standards, transporting hazardous materials, drug and alcohol regulations, and more.
A sampling of vehicle regulations includes: inspection, repair, maintenance; noise emission standards, truck size and weight limitations, transporting hazardous materials, transporting migrant workers, and more.
Some company regulations might cover: compatibility with various state laws, standards for registering with different states, transportation of household goods in interstate commerce plus consumer protection, investigation and voluntary disposition of loss and damage claims and salvage processing, substance abuse testing, driver qualifications and testing, employee safety, and overall safety standards and much more.
Hazardous materials (hazmat) have a short list of federal regulations. Then there’s overlapping guidance for all regulations.
Companies that operate commercial vehicles transporting passengers or hauling cargo in interstate commerce must be registered with the FMCSA and must have a USDOT Number. Also, commercial intrastate hazardous materials carriers who haul quantities requiring a safety permit must register for a USDOT Number. The USDOT Number serves as a unique identifier when collecting and monitoring a company’s safety information acquired during audits, compliance reviews, crash investigations, and inspections.
All first-time carrier applicants for a USDOT Number will be automatically enrolled in the FMCSA New Entrant Safety Assurance Program. This program requires new entrants to pass a safety audit and maintain acceptable roadside safety performance over an initial 18-month period before they are given permanent registration status. However, there are some exceptions to this rule which cover most new applicants.
The trucking industry is a heavily regulated industry which is why if you have been seriously injured in a big truck accident or a loved one has died from a fatal truck accident – contact a big truck lawyer like Jim Ronca who knows how to seek justice for acts of negligent wrong doing on wheels.
Mr. Ronca is a truck accident attorney with over 20 years of legal
experience. He has twice been named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer.