The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a direct final rule to eliminate the quarterly financial reporting requirements for certain for-hire motor carriers of property and for-hire motor carriers of passengers. FMCSA said the paperwork burden can be removed without an adverse impact on safety or the agency´s ability to maintain effective commercial regulations over the for-hire trucking and passenger-carrying industries.
The annual reporting program was implemented in 1938 and subsequently was transferred from the Interstate Commerce Commission to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics in 1996. Responsibility for collection of Form M (for-hire property carriers, including household goods carriers) and Form MP-1 (for-hire passenger carriers), including quarterly reporting requirements for such forms (Form QFR), was transferred from BTS to FMCSA in 2004.
While FMCSA has continued to collect carriers’ annual reports and furnish copies requested under the Freedom of Information Act, the agency said it currently does not use the quarterly reports because they are not necessary to monitor carriers’ safety performance. The agency said the information collected currently does not support any agency regulatory function, nor does it have practical utility for the agency or for those carriers who must comply with the reporting requirement.
For more information, go to www.regulations.gov; the docket number is FMCSA-2012-0020.
