The acting chief of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Meera Joshi, recently announced she has withdrawn her nomination to lead the agency, leaving the position vacant once again.
The FMCSA hasn’t been able to seat a leader since Raymond P. Martinez resigned in October 2019, and the wing of the U.S. Department of Transportation now heads into 2022 without defined policy initiatives or leadership. What’s somewhat unique about Joshi leaving for a post in New York City is that she was a consensus, bipartisan choice who cruised through congressional hearings. She earned a 22-6 committee vote to advance her nomination to the U.S. Senate floor. Trucking industry leaders and safety advocates endorsed her promotion from acting chief to the FMCSA’s seventh administrator.
“Meera Joshi has led FMCSA through historic times — as an unprecedented global pandemic, countless natural disasters, a cyberattack on a major domestic pipeline and widespread workforce shortages challenged the freight economy in ways never before seen,” American Trucking Associations president Chris Spear reportedly stated. “Throughout her tenure, the trucking industry has found Deputy Administrator Joshi to be a candid, collaborative and valued partner in government. Her use of data and stakeholder input drove a sound policy process designed to meet real-world needs.”
Poised to easily gain the required votes to assume the leadership mantle, she opted out of the process to become NYC mayor-elect Eric Adams’ deputy mayor for operations. Few disagree that her role in NYC will be far more challenging than running the FMCSA. The move out of Washington, D.C., appears to be something of a head-scratcher.
Expected to take the reins in NYC effective Jan. 1, she will reportedly be tasked with managing the city’s Covid response as infection rates surge, reduce high unemployment, and combat crime and homelessness while improving tourism. Her recently accepted NYC post could prove one of the most stressful given that businesses are closing, and the country suffers from 50-year high inflation.
Joshi served as CEO of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission before heading to the nation’s capital. It seems counterintuitive for a career woman to step away from a prominent federal post to a local one. However, the FMCSA leadership track record has historically been spotty, at best.
“It’s one of the most thankless positions within the department because no matter what you do you’re going to piss off one side or the other,” a U.S. Department of Transportation official reportedly said. “(Safety advocates) say you’re always kowtowing to industry. The trucking industry complains that you’re always throttling them with regulations. When you try to give the industry a little breathing room, you get sued by the safety people.”
Since 2001, the FMCSA turnover includes six different administrators.
Sources: freightwaves.com, ccjdigital.com
I’ll take the job! Let those safety losers sue me for doing something wrong
Who cares the FNCSA is nothing but an incompetent group of clowns that pass ignorant regulations that get more people killed then anything else. Elds are a fraud and have increased deaths but due to crooked money they’ll never come out of the trucks.
Agree 💯%
Totally Agree!
What else would you expect when you pit hot headed truckers, greedy corporations, and politicians against each other?
It always benefits the corporations – ALWAYS
Appointee: Thank you for the opportunity to serve, I’ve wanted this job all my life.
White House: Great, that’s the spirit. We need you to come up with either a solution for our truck parking shortage, or a really good, believable excuse as to why it’s not possible.
Appointee: I quit, take it easy!
It is time for Butajudge to start proving he can handle the job as Secretary of Transportation. He can at least hire a person to run this department that has driven an 18 wheeler across our roads and highways once in their career. We need to make the trucking industry work for truckers, trucking companies and remember our goal of delivering the items Americans need and want every day, ultimately making this country work.
Also, leave these greedy big box stores (,ie Walmart billionaires), out of the conversation, they only disrupt and disrespect the trucking industry by pitting trucking companies pricing against each other. Last but not least, eliminate the Politicians, they have nothing to add to these issues but disruptive dialogue. Oh yea, here are another 600 some folks in Congress $$$$$$ on capital hill who couldn’t find a gear shift even if they sat on it!!😳
Thank you,
Chris