2012 Outlook for more Pending Regs

From a larger article on Pending Industry Regulations:
http://www.truckinginfo.com/washington-report/news-detail.asp?news_id=75580&news_category_id=84

Other rules pending

There are a host of important rules pending at FMCSA and other agencies.

- CSA Safety Fitness: This rule is the critical next step in implementation of FMCSA's new safety enforcement mechanism. It will complete the transition away from using Compliance Reviews to determine fitness, to using CSA data on crashes, inspections and violation history. The initial proposed rule, now more than four years in the making, is scheduled to be published in April. It's not likely to be finished until 2013.

- Cell Phone Restrictions: This rule, announced right before Thanksgiving, says truck and bus drivers may use only a hands-free phone while driving. It prohibits drivers from reaching for, dialing or holding a mobile phone while the truck is moving. The rule does not restrict the use of a mobile phone when not driving. Penalties for violations range from fines and suspensions for drivers to fines for companies that require or allow drivers to use handheld phones while driving.

- Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse: This proposal would create a national database containing the results of drug and alcohol tests of drivers, a safety management tool that trucking companies have been seeking for years.

Under the rule, employers would have to report positive test results and refusals, and prospective employers would, with the applicant's permission, query the database. The idea is to give carriers a way to make sure the applicant has completed the return-to-duty process, and to ensure that carriers are doing the required testing.

The proposal is scheduled to be published next May. It probably will take until early 2013 to complete the final rule.

- National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners: This final rule probably will be published before the end of the year. The registry will identify examiners who have been certified, understand the truck driver's working environment and are up to date on current medical standards.

This is part of an ongoing effort by FMCSA to improve its regulation of driver health issues. It is in the process of drafting a proposal to update rules on conditions ranging from cardiovascular disease to sleep disorders.

- Minimum Driver Training: The agency is working on a final rule, scheduled to be published next July, that will require behind-the-wheel and classroom training for CDL applicants. It is the agency's response to a 2005 court order that said the lack of a requirement for road training is a fatal flaw in the current rules.

- Unified Registration System: This final rule, poised to go into effect early in 2012, will combine the systems that track carrier identification, registration financial responsibility into a single, new online system. All registrants will have to update their information every two years.

- Speed Limiters: The National Highway Traffic Safety AdminiÂ#stration plans to propose a rule requiring limiters in heavy trucks. The proposal is scheduled for end of 2012, so a final rule is not likely before late 2013. The details are not yet available, but discussion so far has centered on a 68-mph limit that would apply to all trucks built after 1992, which means virtually all highway trucks.

In a related development, the truck safety bill now in the Senate includes a provision that would mandate the limiters.

- Electronic Stability Control: NHTSA is well along on a proposal to require ESC on heavy trucks. The proposal, on track to be published by the end of February, would specify the details of a technology standard that a growing number of fleets already have adopted voluntarily because they see safety benefits.

The agency has not said how it intends to handle the distinction between the two types of stability systems on the market, Roll Stability Control and Electronic Stability Control. But it has made clear that the proposal will cover only tractors, which indicates there is not likely to be a retrofit requirement.

- Wetlines: Tank carriers are alarmed about a pending regulation that would require them to make sure there is no gasoline in the loading lines of their tanks, the so-called "wetlines" rule. Under the rule, any trailer built two years after the rule goes into effect could carry no more than 0.26 gallons in its wetlines, or have structural protection. Existing tanks would have to be equipped with purging systems. Carriers would have 12 years to complete that work.

Tank carriers say the rule is not necessary because the risk of a fatal lines incident is low, and the process of welding purging equipment onto tanks can be hazardous. The rule by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is scheduled to be published next May, but the National Tank Truck Carriers has asked the Department of Transportation to reconsider.