The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration proposed a rule May 24 to eliminate the requirement of certain for-hire motor carriers to submit quarterly financial reports to the agency, which will remove an estimated 200 hours and $9,900 of burden from the industry each year, the agency says.
FMCSA says there’s no safety benefit to the forms.
The rule was set to go into effect July 27, 2012, if no adverse comments were received between June 27, 2012 and July 27 of the same year.
SJ Consulting Group, however, said the reports were a “useful insight” into the trucking industry and offered statistics not available elsewhere. The agency considered the commentary and decided to move forward with the rule anyway.
The annual financial reports will not be affected by the rule and will be still be required of certain motor carriers.
According to the announcement from FMCSA, “This paperwork burden can be removed without an adverse impact on safety or the Agency´s ability to maintain effective commercial regulatory oversight over the for-hire trucking and passenger-carrying industries.”
Comments can be made on the proposed rule via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at regulations.gov; fax (202-493-2251); mail (U.S. Department of Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140; 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, D.C., 20590; or hand delivery to the same address.
All submissions must include docket number FMCSA-2012-0020.
