The American Bus Association (ABA) recently expressed concern over changes proposed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to rules governing lease and interchange.
In mid-June, the FMCSA posted a notice of the revisions, but the notice did not include regulatory language and was not labeled with a “notice of proposed rulemaking.” This caused confusion within the motor-coach industry.
“Our industry strongly supports efforts to ensure safety for our more than 600 million annual passengers,” ABA President and CEO Peter Pantuso said. “While we absolutely support the need to remove ‘bad actors’ from our nation’s roads, we should not penalize good, compliant carriers with unnecessary, ineffective leasing requirements. We appreciate the FMCSA for taking steps to make certain [it] get this rule right, but urge the agency to ensure our members and the industry as a whole have a voice in the process. We want to help FMCSA, but confusing and nonspecific notices do not allow our members to respond thoroughly.”
Both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate Appropriations Committees also have expressed concern over the rule changes.
Congress has urged FMCSA to post a clarification and extend the public response time. The issue was addressed in the Department of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill reports.