Trucking regs in limbo: What will emerge, and when?
While some trucking regulations will get a second look under the Trump administration’s regulatory freeze—and some of these might see substantial revision, or even be dropped altogether—major initiatives such as the electronic logging device mandate will likely be implemented on schedule, says a former FMCSA administrator, featured on the latest Fleet Owner/Omnitracs webinar.
But, at least for now, “limbo” best describes the state of recent and upcoming federal regs, explained Annette Sandberg, principal at TransSafe Consulting LLC and the FMCSA boss from 2002-2006. Trump’s “two-for-one” executive order (under which two existing rules much be dropped before a new one can imposed) is also “causing pause” in the pipeline. Another order calls for the appointment “regulatory reform officer” to apply specific standards to proposals in order for them to move forward.
“The president said they have to look carefully at any regulations and probably eliminate those regulations if they eliminate jobs or inhibit job creation; or if the regulation is unnecessary, outdated or ineffective; or if it imposes costs that exceed benefits,” Sandberg said. “So if you’ve wondered why DOT hasn’t done anything, these executive orders basically halted any regulations from coming out.”
Sandberg, joined by Steve Field, director of safety at Prime Inc., then went through the list of the latest rules and regulations, discussing their status, possible changes, implementation timelines, and their respective impacts on fleet operations. Use the navigation arrows about to flip through the slides and commentary.
The webinar replay, including an extensive Q&A period, is available here.
