Commercial Truck Safety: Overview (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
March 21, 2017 |
| Report Number |
R44792 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
David Randall Peterman |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
More than 11 million large trucks travel U.S. roads, and almost 4 million people hold commercial
driver’s licenses. In 2015, large trucks were involved in more than 400,000 motor vehicle crashes
serious enough to be registered by police, with nearly 100,000 of those crashes causing injuries
and around 3,600 resulting in fatalities. To address this situation, Congress has assigned the U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT)—primarily the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
(FMCSA)—responsibility for regulating the safety practices of commercial motor carriers and
drivers. In addition, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in DOT is
responsible for the safety of the vehicles themselves through its role in setting vehicle safety
standards.
Truck crash, injury, and fatality rates have generally been rising since 2009 after declining over
many years. This increase may be due in part to marginally skilled or inexperienced drivers
entering the industry, or to higher levels of work and stress among veteran drivers, or to other
factors.
Two FMCSA proposals concerning driver safety have proven particularly contentious.
In March 2017, FMCSA abandoned its attempt to require drivers to take a 34-
hour rest period, including two consecutive early morning periods, at least once a
week. The proposed “restart rule” encountered strong objections from drivers as
well as motor carriers, and an FMCSA study could not confirm that the rule
would lead to sufficient improvement in safety to satisfy Congress.
In March 2016 FMCSA began a joint rulemaking with the Federal Railroad
Administration to require that commercial drivers (or train operators) who exhibit
certain risk factors be screened for obstructive sleep apnea, which interferes with
sound sleep and thus increases the risk of crashes. In the past, efforts to address
sleep apnea among drivers met resistance from drivers who feared they might be
prohibited from driving commercial vehicles, and Congress prohibited FMCSA
from addressing sleep apnea among drivers except through a formal rulemaking.
FMCSA has introduced stricter training standards for new drivers, and has instituted a database
intended to help prevent drivers barred from commercial driving due to convictions for driving
under the influence of drugs or alcohol from bypassing the prohibition and continuing to drive.
FMCSA has also barred drivers from using handheld phones or texting in order to reduce driver
distraction.
Motor carriers have frequently sought to increase driver productivity and reduce costs by pushing
for standards allowing longer or heavier trucks. Although efforts to permit longer trucks were
rejected by Congress in 2015, Congress did approve a number of exceptions and waivers to
federal weight limits. FMCSA and NHTSA have jointly proposed to require that all large trucks
be equipped with speed limiters, a proposal over which the trucking industry is divided. Congress
also has taken an interest in FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, and Accountability Program, which is
intended to allow it to focus resources on carriers most in need of supervision from a safety
standpoint. Legislation in 2015 required FMCSA to obtain external review of the system it
proposes to use to measure carrier safety.
