Highway funding bill discourages use of small carriers

That's what government and their regulations are always for. To protect the interests of a few established players against the smaller fish. The idea is that there will be barriers/obstacles for many and benefits for a select few. Lofty ideals are the lies used to sell it to a mostly gullible and uncaring public. For example this is about safety and who could possibly be against that? If you oppose it you must want unsafe trucks on the road.

 

The big carriers are big campaign contributors, most likely. Bigger than small outfits, anyway. The megas can also influence the votes of their employees.

 

Politics my friend...

 

Sorry hon, ya lost me at communism...

 

I understand. Just average until less than average. smh

 

Just to be clear, this is the rating that comes from a carrier safety audit, not CSA scores. Although CSA scores are used as you say to focus limited enforcement resources. There may only be 330 fmcsa inspectors, but most of these are done by the state's carrier enforcement people. Not that it matters. The states would rather have those officers out writing revenue generating tickets than sitting around all day doing audits.

Then, after you've gotten their attention and earned an unsatisfactory or conditional rating, wait around until they can fit you into their busy government schedules to review your case and revise your rating to satisfactory. In the mean time, better shippers will not employ you since you have that rating other than "satisfactory."

Overdrive magazine ran a feature on this last year. On a side note, their website sucks and does not have a search feature. Google found it. Here is the article.