Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater issued a report card on what the Department of Transportation has done to improve truck and bus safety since its action plan was announced in May.The list of accomplishments was released on the same day the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Surface Transportation held its hearing on legislation that would move motor carrier safety enforcement out of the Federal Highway Administration.Among the goals Slater noted in a press release were:
A 59% increase in compliance reviews. From May through August, 2,770 compliance reviews, an average of 692 a month, were conducted, compared with 1,745 compliance reviews, or an average of 436 a month, for first four months of the year.
Tripling of federal safety investigators. Forty federal safety investigators at the U.S.-Mexico border were to be in the field by the end of September, an increase of 27.
Enforcement case backlog reduced by two-thirds. The backlog of enforcement cases identified by the department’s inspector general has been reduced from 1,174 to 363.
Average fines have doubled. The fines in settlements have increased from an average of $1,600 a case during the first two quarters of fiscal 1999 to $3,200 from May through September.
Slater said that during the coming months the department expects to undertake several projects. Among them is making available grants as incentives for states to deploy the Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks, which provides information for federal, state and motor carrier personnel to help identify unsafe carriers and drivers.For the full story, see the Oct. 25 print edition of Transport Topics. .
