On Monday, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said it had proposed a new rule that would improve supply chains and simplify hazardous material transportation regulations.
The new proposed rule would also save nearly $100 million for businesses and consumers, the agency said. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking modernizes regulations to accommodate the latest technologies, business practices, and understandings of hazardous materials, officials said, and includes updates in packaging practices for hazmat transportation. The proposed rule would also enhance safety standards across highway, rail, and vessel modes of transportation.
“Hazardous materials are a significant share of the essential goods routinely shipped in the United States, and the Biden-Harris Administration is working to make it more affordable and straightforward to safely move these materials through our supply chains,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said. “The proposal we’re announcing today streamlines requirements while maintaining safety measures, helping to reduce costs for businesses and consumers and make it easier for drivers to do their job.”
The proposed rule reduces burdens for U.S. truck drivers by simplifying hazard communication requirements for fuels transported in tanker trucks; encourages improvements to hazardous materials rail cars by reducing review times for rail car design improvements; and modernizing standards for agricultural equipment by codifying manufacturing standards for newly built fertilizer tanks and permitting the use of video and fiber optics technology in inspections and cargo tank calibrations.
“This proposal focuses on ways to reduce regulatory burdens for America’s truck drivers and increases the overall efficiency of America’s critical energy transportation supply chains that impact every job and industry throughout our economy,” PHMSA Deputy Administrator Tristan Brown said. “These proposed changes build on the Biden-Harris Administration’s successful work to ensure America’s supply chains are the safest and most efficient in the world, utilizing the latest data and transportation technologies.”
The propose rule was submitted to the Federal Register. Stakeholders and others will have 90 days to comment on the proposed rule once it is published.