The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will hold a listening session on three pending petitions on broker transparency on Oct. 28.
“FMCSA would like to hear from members of the public on their views on the regulation of property carrier brokers in general and on three pending petitions concerning specific property carrier broker regulation issues,” the agency announced in a document released Friday.
Two of the petitions, from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and the Small Business in Transportation Coalition (SBTC), seek to strengthen brokers’ reporting requirements.
A third petition submitted in August by the Transportation Intermediaries Association, which represents brokers, requests that FMCSA “eliminate outdated regulation that no longer applies in the current marketplace.” TIA is also seeking guidance on “what constitutes a legitimate ‘dispatch service’ to remove ‘unethical and unscrupulous actors from the marketplace’ and eliminate an administrative burden on FMCSA to enforce outdated and unnecessary regulations,” according to the agency.
“Given that the TIA petition expresses a different perspective than those expressed in the OOIDA and SBTC petitions, FMCSA would like to hear from members of the public on their views on the regulation of property carrier brokers in general and on the three petitions specifically,” FMCSA stated. Comments on the OOIDA and SBTC petitions are due Oct. 19.
The session will be held via videoconference from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Written comments are being accepted for discussion as well and should be submitted at least seven business days in advance of the session. Details on how the public can participate can be found here.
Tension between owner-operator truckers and the brokers they use to find and book their loads was raised to new levels earlier this year, including allegations raised by drivers that brokers were taking advantage of them through price gouging. President Trump weighed in on the issue on the side of owner-operators during a “May Day” rally held by drivers for two weeks in May.
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