Trucking Safety Summit meetings set for Aug. 5

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s 2020 Trucking Safety Summit that was originally scheduled for March has been rescheduled as a virtual meeting on Aug. 5.

A notice of the public meeting is scheduled to publish in the Federal Register on Tuesday, July 21.

“This meeting will be held virtually on Aug. 5 to solicit information on improving the safe operation of property-carrying commercial motor vehicles on our nation’s roadways,” FMCSA stated in the notice. “The virtual meeting will provide interested stakeholders – including motor carriers, drivers, safety technology developers and users, federal and state partners, safety advocacy groups, as well as members of the public – an opportunity to share their ideas on improving truck safety.”

The summit was originally scheduled for March 19 in Washington, D.C., but was postponed on March 13 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The sessions are intentionally structured to facilitate exchanges between experienced players in the trucking sphere who might not otherwise meet to collaborate,” the FMCSA notice stated. “Senior FMCSA personnel will facilitate every session, selecting and posing questions to promote a productive discussion.”

FMCSA said it plans to use videoconference meetings to help form a safety action plan.

The summit, which will be open to the public, will be from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Aug. 5. Advance registration is required.

A public comment period is planned in the afternoon, and the agency is asking for oral public comments to be limited to three minutes.

Written comments, as well as data or analysis regarding truck safety, may be submitted at the Regulations.gov website at docket No. FMCSA-2020-0076.

Information regarding the meeting’s agenda and registration should be available soon.

In March, FMCSA said the goal of the summit was to use it as a productive dialogue between FMCSA, industry, law enforcement and safety advocates to help improve a shared goal of road safety for all Americans.

Last week, the agency had its Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee meeting. OOIDA President Todd Spencer, who serves on the committee, said safety could be improved by moving away from regulations that haven’t been proven to work.

“There needs to be an effort to evaluate performance of initiatives to see if there is a positive impact, a negative impact, or no impact at all,” Spencer said. “If there isn’t a positive impact on safety, then we should move on.

“We need a system that rewards professionalism,” Spencer said. “Enforcing regulations on safe drivers is a stupid way to spend tax dollars. If you’re not crashing, you’re not the problem. Focus on where the problems are.”