28 Oregon Trucking Association, Inc. Oregon Truck Dispatch Will 2025 Bring Major Changes to FMCSA Regulations? By Adam Williamson | OTA’s Director of Training & Development SAFETY THE REGULATORY PROCESS can often be frustrating for all involved. To begin, it is frequently difficult for an agency to get the ball rolling with formal proposals for adding or revising rules. Considerable research and data analysis must be done to identify significant deficiency in the current framework that warrants overhaul. When changes are proposed, a period of public comment is required. Once this comment period is concluded, the feedback received must then go through a review process to see if the proposals can be refined. When the final version of a rule is approved, advance industry notice must be announced before it goes into effect. The process can literally take years in some cases. Whew! And you thought that Congress moved slowly! The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is a perfect example of this slow grinding bureaucracy. The result is often prolonged periods of review that leave proposed rule changes in an indefinite state of limbo. Everybody is left waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sometimes it is difficult to make long term business plans when there is so much uncertainty hanging over the trucking industry. Will everything continue under essentially the same regulatory framework for the time being? Or will major improvisation be needed to adjust to the imminent arrival of a new set of rules? The year 2025 is shaping up to be rather interesting in this regard. A series of proposed FMCSA rules have begun to overlap in the review process to the point where the trucking industry could be facing a barrage of new rules in the next year. Here are some of the changes that could very well be on the table: 1. Safety Measurement System Revisions. Currently, there is a three-tiered safety rating system for carriers based on the direct results of a safety audit (Satisfactory/ Conditional/ Unsatisfactory). This system might end up being preserved, but it could also be replaced with a simplified system assigning more straightforward “Fit/Unfit” status to carriers. Roadside inspection data can also become a contributing factor in this evaluation. With a comment period that has been closed to the public for over a year now, a final decision is expected to be announced sooner rather than later. 2. Electronic Logging Device Revisions. Think that your pre-2000 engine trucks are grandfathered in as exempt from the ELD mandate? Think again. This exemption might be removed entirely under a proposed expansion of the rule that could also end up redefining how ELD malfunctions must be addressed by carriers. 3. Speed Limiter Mandate. This rule is currently on hold until 2025 as specifics are still being ironed out. Initially, a top speed of 68 mph for large trucks was recommended by FMCSA but this recommendation was withdrawn after key voices advocated for greater flexibility. Discussions for the proposal are scheduled to be resumed in May of next year. 4. Automatic Emergency Braking Standardization. FMCSA has proposed standardizing Class 3 and larger AEB systems with the anticipation that a rule will be announced sometime in 2025. 5. Approved Clinics for Oral Saliva Testing. Oral saliva fluid for controlled substance testing has already been approved by FMCSA as a discretionary alternative to urinalysis. However, the industry has been awaiting the certification of clinics to provide this testing methodology since the original announcement was made earlier this year. It is expected that the delay in clinic certification could end as early as January 2025. This is a particularly heavy regulatory agenda to drag across the finish line in one calendar year. Will the trucking industry see a tsunami of changing rules go into effect over the next 12 months? Or will most of these proposed rules end up being delayed yet again if not altogether discarded? If you have a crystal ball to gaze into, now might be a good time to dust it off. Alas, I fear that most of us will just have to wait for the pending announcements as they are issued by FMCSA. The year 2025 will be here before we know it, and it could be the start of some major regulatory changes in the trucking industry. Everybody, stay tuned!
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