WASHINGTON — Truck brokers want to see long-sought legislation that sets selection standards for motor carriers included in the next highway bill.
The Motor Carrier Safety Selection Standard Act, reintroduced on Thursday by U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., requires that brokers and shippers only contract with trucking companies that are registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, hold a valid operating authority, and meet the required insurance thresholds.
The legislation also directs FMCSA to create a public-facing website confirming which carriers meet these requirements.
“Currently, a significant number of motor carriers lack formal safety ratings, making it challenging for contracting entities to assess their operating authority and attributable risk,” wrote Daniel Hoff, vice president of government affairs for the Transportation Intermediaries Association, in comments filed recently with the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“By providing a standardized approach to carrier selection, this bill will enhance safety and accountability throughout the supply chain.”
TIA has been lobbying Congress to approve versions of legislation for close to 10 years.
“We’ve been fighting for this for quite a while,” TIA President Chris Burroughs told FreightWaves. “We’re hoping now to get it included in the reauthorization package.”
Large 3PLs like C.H. Robinson (NASDAQ: CHRW) have also been lobbying in support of the bill.
“Without a clear federal standard, the result is a confusing patchwork of standards that threaten the nation’s economy and public safety,” said Ben Campbell in a press statement last year, who at the time was C.H. Robinson’s chief legal officer.
“Additionally, some shippers and brokers have already begun excluding motor carriers from their networks based on their own assessment of who is ‘safe’ and who is not. This harms small carriers with five trucks or fewer who make up 90% of the market.”
In addition to motor carrier selection standards, TIA also is urging lawmakers to include in the highway bill legislation that cracks down on fake and illegitimate brokers and carriers, and new regulations for combatting cargo theft.
Transparency battle
The group at the same time is opposing any efforts to include into the highway reauthorization aspects of the proposed broker transparency rule, which FMCSA plans to reissue in January.
“This rule was relevant when brokers were commissioned agents of motor carriers and rates were regulated by the federal government,” Hoff told DOT. “Today, brokers operate as independent businesses that negotiate separately with shippers and carriers and often work under strict confidentiality agreements.”
Many owner operators and small-business trucking companies, however, see such agreements as a restriction on their legal rights.
“Today, billion-dollar brokers exert enormous influence over decision-making bodies, wielding money and lobbying clout to weaken or erase protections Congress explicitly designed for the motor carriers who are the backbone of this nation’s supply chain,” wrote Leander Richmond, creator of grass-roots trucker group Carriers United, in an email sent Friday to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
Richmond contends that by not disclosing their transaction records, freight brokers are breaking the law. “Brokers provide a very unnecessary service. If they were forced to follow the law, most of them would not exist.”
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