Senator Markey blasts federal trucking agency oversight failure

In 2019 alone, an estimated 5,005 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks

Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, today sent a letter to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), demanding the agency account for its repeated failure to provide proper oversight to America’s commercial trucking industry. The Senator’s letter comes in response to a recent investigation by The Boston Globe, which reveals how the FMCSA has allowed trucking companies across the United States to operate with minimal to no federal accountability, despite rapid growth in the industry and an estimated 48 percent increase in fatalities from crashes involving large trucks between 2009 and 2019.

Among the most egregious failures revealed by The Boston Globe is the FMCSA’s continual resistance to calls to adopt simple procedures for reviewing new trucking companies before granting them permission to operate. Instead, the FMCSA merely requires trucking companies to file paperwork that pledges compliance with federal regulations, without ever verifying truthfulness or conducting meaningful, ongoing oversight. Moreover, the FMCSA only initiates scattershot enforcement actions against companies repeatedly caught violating basic safety standards or with exceedingly high crash rates.

“Given the FMCSA’s loophole-ridden and patchwork system of accountability, it is no wonder that the commercial trucking industry is increasingly deadly for all users of the road,” writes Senator Markey in his letter to FMSCA Deputy Administrator James Wiley Deck. “Although I recognize that the FMCSA faces resource-limitations, I believe that your agency’s failures go well beyond financial or personnel constraints and appear to represent a dereliction of responsibility. I therefore urge you to take immediate action to implement stronger procedures for certifying new trucking companies, conducting regular oversight of the industry, and enforcing federal safety regulations.”