ADVOCACY: QualifiedCarriers.com Founder Testifies Before Congress

Our co-founder and CEO Jeff Tucker testified in Congress July 11, before the House of Representatives Small Business Committee, on the harm FMCSA is causing to small business. In May 2012, despite several meetings and discussions where shipper and broker groups pleaded with FMCSA executive staff, FMCSA shocked and disappointed shippers and brokers by publishing three (3) documents intended to guide shippers and brokers on how to use CSA/BASICs to select carriers. Worse, the documents contain many misleading and false statements.  By doing so, they have given accident lawyers jet fuel for their lawsuits against shippers and brokers who hire carriers. Meanwhile, they have ignored simple solutions to share with the public their worst of the worst carriers, their “high risk” carriers.

Under Federal law, FMCSA has one determination of a carrier’s fitness—safety rating. BASICS are not safety ratings. They may one day be the building blocks of a future safety rating (safety fitness determination), but they are not so today. Today, 2/7 of BASICs are hidden by FMCSA, and 2/3 of all carriers don’t even have one BASIC score at all—18 months into CSA! Two recent studies conclude there is no correlation to crash risk for any BASIC.  

The House Small Business Committee members took the issue seriously, and took FMCSA to task for several key items. Of significant concern, were: (a) FMCSA’s 2 year refusal to release the study that shows accidents not the fault of the truck drivers still correlate to truck driver accidents; (b) that FMCSA would presume a trucker guilty in 100% accidents; (c) 2 studies show CSA BASICs don’t correlate to crash.  We will keep up the fight. We’re hoping for a more receptive FMCSA in the future.