OOIDA Lauds Lawmakers for Halting Arbitrary Trucking Insurance Hikes
“The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and its members last week thanked the U.S. House of Representatives for voting to stop the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) from arbitrarily raising financial requirements for commercial truck fleets.
“In a bipartisan vote late last week, the House struck down an amendment seeking to remove a provision supported by truckers and other industry stakeholders, which halts the FMCSA’s rush to raise these requirements.
“The FMCSA is currently developing an increase in federally mandated levels of financial responsibility coverage for property and passenger motor carriers. OOIDA and other industry groups have told Congress that the initiative — which the FMCSA is basing on increases in medical inflation — would place significant financial burdens on motor carriers without any improvement to highway safety.
“Congress never intended financial requirements to be tied to increases in medical inflation or to cover the worst-case crashes, and the legislative and regulatory history on that is clear,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA.
“In a worst-case crash, FMCSA’s own report admits that there is no requirement high enough to cover all damages. But there may be other ways to address covering the damage costs of catastrophic and worst-case crashes.”