Please pray for us to have wisdom on how to respond to the upcoming action (on Monday, June 5, 2017) by the DOT/FMCSA to WITHDRAW RULEMAKING on trucking minimum liability insurance — which has not been raised in over 30 years.
This issue is one of the three #trucksafety issues which we included in our 2014 AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up For Truck Safety Petition. FMCSA responded with rulemaking in November 2014. The 11,000+ petition signatures were added to the Public Comments for this Proposed Rule.
The AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up For Truck Safety Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/957/501/869/stand-up-for-truck-safety/
The signatures were posted on the Federal Register here: The is a Comment on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Proposed Rule: Financial Responsibility for Motor Carriers, Freight Forwarders and Brokers: AnnaLeah and Mary Karth – Comments
Articles on this upcoming action:
- FMCSA Yanks Minimum Insurance Rulemaking, Heavy Duty Trucking, Truckinginfo.com, David Cullen, June 2, 2017
- FMCSA officially nixes rule on increasing minimum liability insurance required for carriers, Overdrive, James Jaillet|June 02, 2017
- FMCSA Drops Plans to Study Raising Insurance Minimums for Motor Carriers, Brokers This article even mentions that our 11,366 petition signatures were included in the Public Comments considered by FMCSA .
- The trucking industry for acting to delay progress on this important issue.
- FMCSA for not using their authority to subpoena the insurance industry to provide the necessary information for the required cost/benefit analysis.
- The insurance industry for not providing the requested information.
- The Secretary of Transportation for not using his/her authority to sign in an increase — as was originally intended.
- Congress for not acting to make sure that this issue is properly addressed.
- The President for not signing a Vision Zero Executive Order to ensure that safety rules are not delayed or diluted by cost/benefit analysis that does not give appropriate value to the preservation of human life and health.
See the April 2014 FMCSA Report on this issue: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/Financial-Responsibility-Requirements-Report-Enclosure-FINAL-April%202014.pdf
Read more about this issue here:
- https://annaleahmary.com/tag/minimum-insurance/
- https://annaleahmary.com/minimum-liability-insurance/
Fortunately we plan on submitting a public comment to the upcoming FMCSA Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee public meeting on June 12 in D.C.
Despite our requests for Congress to hold a hearing to force the insurance industry to provide the necessary financial information, no one has been willing to do this. As Jerry says, it is a very one-sided situation: The FMCSA is apparently accepting the information that the rates will sky-rocket and trucking companies will go out of business — although no one has been able to offer proof of this. At the same time, the FMCSA is apparently not accepting the proof that the current liability level is not adequate to cover the costs to society of these truck crashes.
Furthermore, this issue not only impacts the compensation for truck crash tragedies to the victims and the cost to society, but it also limits the ability of the market to ensure that trucking companies are held accountable for their safety practices.
