FMCSA to investigate driver safety

April 28, 2012

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will launch two new research studies this summer on factors affecting driver safety.

According to FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro, the agency wants to determine to what extent driver compensation practices and detention time at shippers' loading and receiving docks affect drivers' ability to drive safely. Ferro made those remarks in a keynote speech April 20 at the annual Spring Forum of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' Columbus (Ohio) Roundtable.

One study will explore whether long waiting times in a parked vehicle at a shipper's dock—which as of Feb. 27 became "off-duty time" under the new driver hours-of-service rule—would contribute to driver fatigue and influence performance.

In the past, all of the time spent in a rig, other than in a sleeper berth, was considered on-duty time for drivers.

The other study would examine whether a link exists between the way drivers are compensated—either by the load or by the mile—and driver behavior behind the wheel, according to Ferro.

The two issues are intertwined, Ferro added. "If you're paid by the load and you can't deliver a load because of detention, that's a problem," she said.

"You're under constant pressure to push yourself to the limits to maximize your daily income," she said.

Transportation Trucking Regulation/Government

Contributing Editor Toby Gooley is a writer and editor specializing in supply chain, logistics, and material handling, and a lecturer at MIT's Center for Transportation & Logistics. She previously was Senior Editor at DC VELOCITY and Editor of DCV's sister publication, CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly. Prior to joining AGiLE Business Media in 2007, she spent 20 years at Logistics Management magazine as Managing Editor and Senior Editor covering international trade and transportation. Prior to that she was an export traffic manager for 10 years. She holds a B.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University.

Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.

California’s zero-emissions mission

National Forklift Safety Day 2021 puts safety in context

You must login or register in order to post a comment.

FMCSA to investigate driver safety

Related Articles

Recent Articles by Toby Gooley

Report Abusive Comment