February 9, 2010
The chairman of a key Senate subcommittee today told trucking industry official Anne S. Ferro he was "concerned" about her ability to enforce truck safety rules as President Obama's nominee to lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., made the remarks at Ferro's nomination hearing in the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. He heads the committee's surface transportation panel.
Ferro is president and CEO of the Maryland Motor Truck Administration, and her nomination by Obama in June raised sharp objections from the Teamsters and some highway safety groups opposed to the current hours of service rules for truck drivers.
Calling FMCSA "an agency in dire need of reform," Lautenberg questioned Ferro's support for mandatory use of electronic onboard recorders in trucks, stronger enforcement of driver hours of service limitations and truck size and weight limits.
She also was grilled on household goods movers, a national clearinghouse for alcohol and drug test results and cross-border trucking with Mexico.
"I am concerned about your ability to take the bold action that is needed" in trucking safety, Lautenberg said, asking Ferro how she could be an impartial regulator after lobbying for the trucking industry the past six years.
Ferro stressed her prior work as a state motor vehicle administrator and regulator in Maryland, and vowed to be a "fair and balanced regulator" who would use "data-driven, sound scientific research" to significantly reduce truck and bus crashes.
"Whoever leads this agency must foster frank discussions about the fundamentals in the freight supply chain and motor coach
industries that encourage participants to push the limits and put the driving public and other commercial drivers at risk," she said in her opening statement.
"Uncompensated time, compensation by the mile or load, professional drivers classified as laborers – these are all aspects of a supply-chain model that rewards squeezing transportation costs out of the equation; factors that shift the cost onto the driving public and professional driver."
The FMCSA Administrator must take the lead "if we are to realize a commercial vehicle industry where the safest drivers and safest motor carriers are the most competitive, not the other way around," she said.
"Furthermore, the agency must get on with considering a universal electronic on board recorder rule, improving the Hours of Service rule, rolling out tougher standards for entry, implementing effective identification and sanctioning high risk carriers."
Lautenberg pressed the question of onboard recorders, or EOBRs, and repeatedly asked why they shouldn't be installed in all large trucks. "Do you agree that it might be a good idea to get EOBRs in all the trucks out there? Are these devices things that improve safety?" he asked.
"I agree that the EOBR is a technology that offers significant gains in safety enforcement for the law enforcement community," Ferro said. That wasn't good enough for the senator. "Your skepticism and unwillingness to make an unqualified commitment to the use of these devices troubles me," he said.
He noted that Congress ordered the Department of Transportation to rule on the use of EOBRs in the 1995 Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act, and noted that it took five years for DOT to propose a rulemaking, which it "backed away" from in 2003.
"You promise to look at it, and you know it might be good for law enforcement, but you were still raising a question ... you obviously are not convinced that these electronic onboard devices should be used. I've got to tell you, I don't understand it."
When asked how she might implement a cross-border trucking program with Mexico, if the White House and Congress revive the pilot project killed earlier this year, Ferro said "my commitment would be to implement any program to exceed the standards of U.S. law governing motor carrier safety."
Any Mexican carrier hoping to enter the U.S. "would have to adhere to the minimum U.S. standards, if not better," she said.
The committee did not vote on Ferro's nomination or the nomination of Cynthia L. Quarterman to be administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Additional questions will be submitted to the nominees, who have until Tuesday to respond.
Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com; William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com.
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