Trucking news and briefs for Monday, March 27, 2023:
In a letter filed to the docket of the Transportation Intermediaries Association’s 2020 request to remove certain regulations pertaining to brokered transaction transparency, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration sided with owner-operators and carriers and denied the petition.
TIA requested in November 2020 that FMCSA rescind 49 CFR 371.3(c), concerning the rights of parties to a brokered transaction to review the records of the transaction.
TIA argued that the regulation, established in 1980, doesn’t apply in today’s marketplace. The group added that the spot market is “one of the most transparent marketplaces in the world,” noting that load boards, the internet and rate quotes in person-to-person communications within the industry “provide the rate transparency that was intended by 49 CFR 371.3 when commissions paid by carriers to brokers were common.”
[Related: Carriers' right to review the record of any brokered transaction]
In denying the request, FMCSA said TIA’s request “does not contain adequate justification to initiate rulemaking,” adding that the agency “believes that elimination of the records disclosure provision would be contrary to the stated transportation policy goals in 49 USC 13101, including promotion of fairness and efficiency in the transportation industry.”
TIA’s petition also asked FMCSA to develop guidance related to “dispatch services,” which FMCSA said was covered in interim guidance issued late last year on the definitions of “broker” and “bona fide agent” that also considered the definition of a “dispatch service.”
