WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has given renewed hope to truck owner-operators that the government will make it easier for them to review broker transaction records to combat alleged price gouging and help ensure they get a fair price for hauling freight.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is reopening the comment period for its “Transparency in Property Broker Transactions” notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) at the request of the Small Business in Transportation Coalition. The initial 60-day comment period, which ended on Jan. 21, received close to 5,000 comments.
SBTC petitioned FMCSA on Jan. 19 for an additional 14 to 30 days based on the high number of comments coming in at deadline, and to give drivers affected or displaced by the wildfires in Southern California an opportunity to respond to the proposed rule.
“Other potential commenters to the NPRM may benefit from an extension as well,” FMCSA stated in a notice posted on Friday. The new comment period ends on March 20.
SBTC, which claims more than 21,000 members that include small shippers, freight brokers and trucking companies, contends that FMCSA’s proposed broker transparency rule does not go far enough to protect truckers from unscrupulous brokers.
In requesting the rulemaking in 2020, SBTC wanted brokers to be barred from requiring carriers to waive their rights to review transaction records, and called for new regulatory language stating that broker contracts cannot exempt brokers from having to comply with transparency requirements already on the books.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association also asked for those contract prohibitions, as well as a requirement that brokers automatically provide transaction information within 48 hours of the completion of contractual services.
FMCSA’s proposed rule, which was published for public comment in November, attempts to give motor carriers more leverage in obtaining freight contract information when disputes arise with brokers, but it stops short of the strict requirements sought by SBTC and OOIDA.
Asked to comment, SBTC Executive Director James Lamb told FreightWaves in an email that he appreciates FMCSA’s reopening the comment period.
He added, however, that “something is very wrong” with FMCSA’s approach to the rulemaking based on information showing that the agency had required a major freight broker to remove waiver language in a contract with one of its carriers – a requirement that SBTC wants to end permanently.
“How does FMCSA tell [the broker] in writing to remove the waiver language … in November of 2023 and then not include a prohibition of waivers in the November 2024 rulemaking as we and OOIDA requested?”
FreightWaves has reached out to FMCSA for comment.
The Transportation Intermediaries Association, meanwhile, wrote in comments filed in the docket that the rulemaking is “a solution in search of a problem.”
“Rather than doubling-down on vestigial economic regulations, FMCSA should focus its efforts on addressing highway safety and addressing the proliferating fraud pandemic in the supply chain, which is costing the U.S. economy over $1 billion annually.”
