News Digest DOT 10-14

The following press release was published by the U.S. Department of Transportation on Jan. 17, 2014. It is reproduced in full below.

FMCSA Finalizes Rule to Shut Down Carriers Based on Patterns of Safety Violations. Next week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will publish a Patterns of Safety Violations Rule which implements the agency’s authority to shut down a bus or truck company if the company, or a company officer, has a history of purposely violating federal safety regulations. The rule is one of the new enforcement tools that the agency has developed in recent years to target high-risk carriers that endanger travelers by avoiding or covering up their negative history of safety compliance. FMCSA intends to apply the rule in egregious cases in which it finds that a motor carrier has committed a pattern of unsafe practices, even if that particular investigation alone does not result in a downgrade of the carrier’s safety fitness rating. The new rule complements a rule adopted by the agency in 2012 to apply out-of-service orders to reincarnated or chameleon carriers and to consolidate their enforcement histories. Today’s rule goes one step further by authorizing a complete revocation of the motor carrier’s authority to operate. For a copy of the Federal Register announcement, see: www.FMCSA.DOT.gov . Contact: Marissa Padilla: (202) 366-9999.

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation