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Understanding the FAST Act

FAST Act: Overview

  • Enacted on December 4, 2015 (PL 114-94)
  • Five year bill that sets FMCSA authorization funding levels through FY 2020.
  • MCSAP grant programs will be restructured beginning in FY 2017 along with an increase in MCSAP funding.
  • Operating expense authorization levels slightly increased through FY 2020.
  • Significant number of Agency mandates:
    • Studies: 5
    • Working Groups: 6
    • Rulemaking: 20
    • FMCSA Reports to Congress: 15

FAST Act: Rulemakings

  • 5106(b) MCSAP Allocation
  • 5301 Windshield Technology
  • 5401(a) Opportunities for Veterans Interim Final Rule
  • 5401(c) Opportunities for Veterans
  • 5402 (a) Drug Free Commercial Drivers
  • 5403 Medical Certification of Veterans
  • 5107(c) Maintenance of Effort Calculation
  • 5501(b) Delays in Goods Movement
  • 5107(a) Maintenance of Effort Calculation
  • 7208 Hazardous Materials Endorsement
  • 5206(b)(1) Applications
  • 5524 Welding Truck Exemptions
  • 5519 Operators of High Rail Vehicles
  • 5521 Ready Mix Concrete Vehicles
  • 5518 Covered Farm Vehicles
  • 5522 Transportation of Construction Materials and Equipment
  • 5507 Electronic Logging Device Requirements
  • 5205 Inspector Standards
  • 5101(a) Grants to States
  • 5206(a) Applications

FAST Act: Compliance, Safety, Accountability

The FAST Act requires the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science (NAS) to conduct a thorough study of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program, specifically the Safety Measurement System (SMS).

Study Requirements

NAS will conduct an independent correlation study of SMS.  The FAST Act has outlined several elements that NAS must analyze and/or consider, including:

  • The accuracy with which the Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASIC) identify high risk carriers; and predict or are correlated with future crash risk, crash severity, or other safety indicators for motor carriers, including the high risk carriers;
  • The methodology used to calculate BASIC percentiles and identify carriers for enforcement, including the weights assigned to particular violations and the tie between crash risk and specific regulatory violations, with respect to accurately identifying and predicting future crash risk for motor carriers;
  • The relative value of inspection information and roadside enforcement data;
  • Any data collection gaps or data sufficiency problems that may exist and the impact of those gaps and problems on the efficacy of the CSA program;
  • The accuracy of safety data, including the use of crash data from crashes in which a motor carrier was free from fault;
  • Whether BASIC percentiles for motor carriers of passengers should be calculated separately from motor carriers of freight;
  • The difference in the rates at which safety violations are reported to FMCSA for inclusion in the SMS by various enforcement authorities, including States, territories, and Federal inspectors;
  • How members of the public use the SMS and what effect making the SMS information public has had on reducing crashes and eliminating unsafe motor carriers from the industry;
  • Whether the SMS provides comparable precision and confidence, through SMS alerts and percentiles, for the relative crash risk of individual large and small motor carriers;
  • Whether alternatives to the SMS would identify high risk carriers more accurately; and
  • The recommendations and findings of the Comptroller General of the United States and the Inspector General of the Department and independent review team reports, issued before the date of enactment of the FAST Act.

For further information about the SMS Correlation Study, see the National Academies of Sciences webpage: http://www.trb.org/PolicyStudies/ReviewFederalMotorCarrierSafety.aspx [external link] .

Within 18 months of the enactment of the FAST Act, FMCSA will submit the results of this study to both Congress and the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Office of Inspector General.  The results will also be published on a publicly-accessible Department of Transportation website.

Post-Study Requirements: If the study report identifies a deficiency or opportunity for improvement, FMCSA will submit a corrective action plan to Congress that will be reviewed by the Inspector General of the Department.

Public Availability of SMS Alerts and Percentiles: As required by Section 5223 of the FAST Act, FMCSA has removed alerts and relative percentiles for property carriers from the public display of the SMS. FMCSA is prohibited from publishing this information until the SMS Correlation Study is complete, and all reporting requirements and certification requirements under the FAST Act are satisfied.

Outcomes: A report to Congress containing study findings; study findings should also be published on a publicly accessible Web site.

Milestones: February 2016: Contract awarded

June 2017: Report to Congress; report published on publicly accessible Web site

Funding: FY 2016: $971,519

Current Status: Project is on schedule. For more details, visit: http://www.trb.org/PolicyStudies/ReviewFederalMotorCarrierSafety.aspx [external link].

Project Manager: For more information, contact Albert Alvarez of the FMCSA Research Division at (202) 385-2387 or albert.alvarez@dot.gov

Contractor:National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences

FAST Act: Working Groups

The FAST Act calls for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to establish several working groups to assist the Agency’s implementation efforts. Working groups required by the FAST Act include:

  • MCSAP Allocation Formula (FAST Section 5106(a)(1))
    • Purpose: To analyze requirements and factors necessary for the establishment of a new allocation formula for the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) and issue a recommendation to the Secretary regarding a new allocation formula for the MCSAP.
    • Membership: Representatives from FMCSA, State commercial motor vehicle safety agencies, an organization representing State agencies responsible for inspection of commercial motor vehicles; and such other persons as the Secretary considers necessary.
  • Preventable Crashes (FAST Section 5225)
    • Purpose: The establishment of this working group is tied to the FAST Act Safety Measurement System (SMS) Correlation Study. No later than 1 year after the Inspector General certifies that the conditions of FAST Act Section 5223(a) are met, the Secretary shall task the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) with reviewing the treatment of preventable crashes under SMS. The working group will make recommendations to the Secretary on a process to allow motor carriers and drivers to request that the Administrator make a determination with respect to the preventability of a crash if such a process has not yet been established, and issue a report to Congress on how the Secretary intends to address the treatment of preventable crashes.
    • Membership: The MCSAC is comprised of 20 members appointed by the Administrator for two-year terms and includes representatives of the motor carrier safety advocacy, safety enforcement, industry, and labor communities.
  • Post-Accident Report (FAST Section 5306(a))
    • Purpose: Review the data elements of post-accident reports, for tow-away accidents involving commercial motor vehicles that are reported to the Federal Government; and to report to the Secretary its findings, including best practices for State post-accident reports.
    • Membership: Not less than 51 percent of the working group shall be composed of individuals representing the States or State law enforcement officials. The remaining members of the working group shall represent industry, labor, safety advocates, and other interested parties.
  • Military Commercial Driver Pilot Program (FAST Section 5404)
    • Purpose: To review the data collected by the Agency in its military commercial driver pilot program and provide recommendations to the Secretary on the feasibility, benefits, and safety impacts of allowing a covered driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce.
    • Membership: Representatives of the Agency, armed forces, industry, drivers, safety advocacy organizations, and State licensing and enforcement officials.
  • Household Goods Consumer Protection Working Group (FAST Section 5503)
    • Purpose: To develop recommendations on how to best convey to consumers relevant information with respect to Federal laws concerning the interstate transportation of household goods by motor carrier.
    • Membership: Representatives of the Agency, individuals with expertise in consumer affairs, educators with expertise in how people learn most effectively, and representatives of the household goods moving industry.

FAST Act: Authorization Levels

  FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20
MCSAP *$218,000,000 $292,600,000 $298,900,000 $304,300,000 $308,700,000
High Priority Activities Program ** $15,000,000 $42,200,000 $43,100,000 $44,000,000 $44,900,000
CMV Operators ***$1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000
CDLPI $30,000,000 $31,200,000 $31,800,000 $32,500,000 $33,200,000
CVISN $25,000,000 Collapses into High Priority Activities FY17-20
BEG $32,000,000 Collapses into MCSAP FY17-20
New Entrant **$32,000,000 Collapses into MCSAP FY17-20
PRISM $5,000,000 Collapses into MCSAP FY17-20
SADIP $3,000,000 Collapses into MCSAP FY17-20

FAST Act: Reports

Why some big names aren’t on the FMCSA-approved ELD list

Truckers, suppliers concerned about self-certification process, compliance

 

Jun 23, 2016 Aaron Marsh  American Trucker

With about a year and a half left before most U.S. trucks will need to have some sort of electronic logging device, or ELD, just five vendors have added their products the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s list of compliant devices. None yet are the big-name providers of electronic driver log recording instruments that conform to FMCSA’s requirements in place for Automatic On-board Recording Devices, or AOBRDs, which are the current option to paper logs and a precursor to the mandated ELDs.

Complicating matters, trucking companies and some technology vendors have expressed concern about whether the self-certified products truly will be compliant with the ELD final rule’s requirements, and Elise Chianelli, director of safety and compliance at fleet management technology company PeopleNet, spells out three things truckers should be aware of regarding where that process is now.

“In terms of the industry, I think it’s going to be year’s end or into next year before you really start to see a lot of credible names pop up” in the self-certified compliant ELD list, Chianelli says.

1. Certain FMCSA software/systems relating to ELD compliance aren’t yet available.

If the Department of Transportation (DOT) shows up after the Dec. 18, 2017 ELD compliance deadline to audit a carrier’s driver logs, either a driver will provide needed info to authorities at the roadside or the carrier will provide info from the back office to auditors. Chianelli says FMCSA will then take the information collected and run it through what the agency is calling its “ERODS,” or Electronic Record of Duty Status, system to determine compliance with federal Hours of Service regulations.

“At this point, FMCSA has not yet released access to ERODS. There’s been rumors we may not see that until the latter half of this year,” she notes. “So in terms of being able to bring a compliant product to market, we’re unsure how [an ELD provider] would know now that they are or are not compliant before they know that what they’re showing for hours of service available matches what FMCSA shows for hours of service available.”

2. Information required for one of the four ELD information transfer methods FMCSA specified also is not yet available.

FMCSA has outlined that ELDs will be able to transfer their data via web service, email, Bluetooth connectivity or USB 2.0 connection, Chianelli points out. However, for the “web services” transfer method, “FMCSA has not yet published where we would post the files to,” she says. “The web services URL has not yet been provided.”

“We at PeopleNet feel we will need to have access to these systems to ensure that when we release our ELD product, yes, it is indeed compliant with all the different specifications,” she adds.

3. FMCSA has published a 400-plus-page document of ELD test cases that is optional for vendors to use in developing their ELD products.

In terms of what is available now, FMCSA published a 440-page document in late April containing ELD test cases and procedures, Chianelli notes. FMCSA states that “although use of the ELD test procedures set forth in this document is not binding on ELD providers . . . FMCSA would use these test procedures to evaluate compliance if the Agency decides to undertake an independent evaluation of an ELD that has been certified by the provider.”

So in other words, “if there is an audit of your [ELD] solution, those test cases are what they (FMCSA) would use in order to determine compliance,” says Chianelli. “FCMSA has stated that you can use the test cases they’ve provided to ensure your product is in compliance, but you don’t have to.

“At the end of the day, this is definitely an area where we feel it’s very important for carriers to do their research and due diligence before making that purchase decision,” she continues. “They need to make sure they’re partnering with the right people who understand the complexities involved” when it comes to ELDs.

Advice for now?

Again, Chianelli emphasizes that PeopleNet and many of the company’s peers in the ELD provider community aren’t likely to self-certify their ELD products until later this year or into 2017.

“And remember, that’s when and if FMCSA grants access to these other applications or pieces of information that will be required,” she notes.

While there are five companies to date that officially claim their products are compliant with the ELD final rule, Chianelli says FMCSA is expecting perhaps four or five times that many vendors ultimately will have products on the self-certified list.