What is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration?

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is one of the most important agencies affecting your safety on the road. Established in 2000 as a separate administration under the auspices of the Department of Transportation, its primary mission is to regulate the commercial trucking industry such as moving companies in order to insure the maximum safety for all moving vehicles on our nation’s highways.

One major part of the FMCSA is their department of Analysis, Research and Technology.  The mission of the ART is to conduct studies, adopt testing into innovative roadside technologies that will reduce accidents, and analyze such statistics as accident injuries, fatalities, accident costs and potential trends all with the goal of reducing accidents involving commercial vehicles. One area that is currently being investigated is a way of testing drivers and trucks for safety up to 30 times faster than is currently being accomplished.  These types of innovations should reduce the accident rates for large vehicle accidents exponentially. This agency is in charge of many of the most important programs the federal government has to ensure highway safety. These include the transportation of hazardous materials, the household goods program (which regulates the companies that provide moving of household goods for the average American), border truck security, commercial driving license standards and much, much more.  These areas are vital for the safety and protection of every driver  

The FMCSA currently maintains a website devoted to teaching all drivers what they can do to ‘share the road safely’ with one another. With sections for car drivers, bus and truck drivers, motorcycle drivers, bicycle riders, pedestrians and mature drivers, each section offers helpful tips on staying safe on the road and on how to survive a crash.  They also have a section for commercial carriers to obtain decals to show areas of commercial vehicles where the driver cannot see other traffic around them. They encourage educators to organize outreach activities that they will provide informational materials for these activities.  

One contentious area that the FMCSA has had to deal with it the way in which they compile accident reports involving commercial drivers. There is no current way to indicate that an accident was unavoidable or that the accident was completely the fault of another driver. 

For instance, if a drunk driver crosses the median on a highway and hits a commercial vehicle head on, and the accident results in fatalities, the accident is shown on the commercial driver’s record simply as an accident involving fatalities and ruins that driver’s record.  The only recourse available to that driver or to the company that employed that driver is to file a grievance, which can be time-consuming and costly.

I think we can all agree that such an agency is vital to the safety of each and every driver on our roads and highways. We need tight regulations in order to assure that every commercial driving on the roads today is in compliance with the rules and regulations put forth by this agency.  Driving on the highway and sharing the road with a huge truck can be intimidating enough without having to worry if the driver is too tired or if his equipment is not in good working order.  It is stated on the FMCSA website: “The primary mission of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities involving large trucks and buses.” And this is exactly what the nation’s highways and drivers need.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is one of the most important agencies affecting your personal safety that you have most likely never heard of. This agency was established in 2000 as a separate administration under the auspices of the Department of Transportation. Its primary mission is to regulate the commercial trucking industry in order to insure the maximum safety for all moving vehicles on our nation’s highways.

One major part of the FMCSA is their department of Analysis, Research and Technology.  The mission of the ART is to conduct studies, adopt testing into innovative roadside technologies that will reduce accidents, and analyze such statistics as accident injuries, fatalities, accident costs and potential trends all with the goal of reducing accidents involving commercial vehicles. One area that is currently being investigated is a way of testing drivers and trucks for safety up to 30 times faster than is currently being accomplished. These types of innovations should reduce the accident rates for large vehicle accidents exponentially. This agency is in charge of many of the most important programs the federal government has to ensure highway safety. These include the transportation of hazardous materials, the household goods program (which regulates the companies that provide moving of household goods for the average American), border truck security, commercial driving license standards and much, much more. These areas are vital for the safety and protection of every driver. 

The FMCSA currently maintains a website devoted to teaching all drivers what they can do to ‘share the road safely’ with one another. With sections for car drivers, bus and truck drivers, motorcycle drivers, bicycle riders, pedestrians and mature drivers, each section offers helpful tips on staying safe on the road and on how to survive a crash. They also have a section for commercial carriers to obtain decals to show areas of commercial vehicles where the driver cannot see other traffic around them. They encourage educators to organize outreach activities that they will provide informational materials for these activities.  

One contentious area that the FMCSA has had to deal with it the way in which they compile accident reports involving commercial drivers. There is no current way to indicate that an accident was unavoidable or that the accident was completely the fault of another driver.  For instance, if a drunk driver crosses the median on a highway and hits a commercial vehicle head on, and the accident results in fatalities, the accident is shown on the commercial driver’s record simply as an accident involving fatalities and ruins that driver’s record.  The only recourse available to that driver or to the company that employed that driver is to file a grievance, which can be time-consuming and costly.

I think we can all agree that such an agency is vital to the safety of each and every driver - especially those that are handling our precious belongings on moving day. We need tight regulations in order to assure that every commercial driving on the roads today is in compliance with the rules and regulations put forth by this agency. Driving on the highway and sharing the road with a huge truck can be intimidating enough without having to worry if the driver is tired or if his equipment is not in good working order. It is stated on the FMCSA website: “The primary mission of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities involving large trucks and buses.” And this is exactly what the nation’s highways and movers need.