Legislation intended to protect freight brokers when hiring carriers is making its way through Washington.
The so-called “National Carrier Hiring Standard” has been included as an amendment within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization funding bill and approved by the House of Representatives. The Senate is now considering its own amendments to the FAA reauthorization, which expires September 30.
The Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), a trade organization for freight brokers, has been urging its members to contact their senators to support the bill.
“Many TIA members employ compliance staff solely to sort through piles of data to determine (or guess) which carrier is or isn’t safe to tender freight,” TIA said in its weekly newsletter to its members. “FMCSA provides 3PLs with flawed data and statistics, leaving 3PLs to do the heavy lifting. The National Hiring Standard is the industry’s best solution to place the responsibility of safety where it belongs — with the FMCSA.”
Carriers must meet 3 criteria
The National Carrier Hiring Standard would require that before using a carrier, a broker or shipper ensure that the carrier is:
- Properly registered with the FMCSA.
- Has obtained the minimum insurance.
- Has not been given an unsatisfactory safety rating.
Passing the hiring standard into law has been one of the top legislative priorities of TIA for several years. The standard has made its way into other funding bills in the past, but those amendments never made it into the final bill.
Want to learn more about the Transportation Intermediaries Association? See Who’s Looking Out For Freight Brokers?