While passing the 6 year highway funding bill this week, Congress also passed a number of amendments to the bill concerning contentious issues like CSA scoring, truck weight, and more that left some parties satisfied and others disappointed. However one amendment seems to not have support from just about anyone. It’s a ‘hiring standards’ bill that if left untouched could spell the end of over 400,000 carriers.

The bill was supposed to discourage brokers, freight forwarders, and shippers from choosing unsafe carriers. To do that, it required that only carriers who had a ‘Satisfactory’ safety rating be marked as safe to do business with. The problem is that upwards of 447,000 carriers, mostly small fleets and owner-operators, don’t currently have any safety rating at all.





“Under the current system, as recognized time and again by FMCSA, it is extremely difficult for small businesses to obtain a satisfactory rating,” said a statement from OOIDA.

Multiple trucking groups including OOIDA, the ATA, and the Transportation Intermediaries Association (a trade group representing brokers) were quick to point out the problems with the bill and call for immediate action.

If no changes are made and the amendment is implemented, it would mean that 447,000+ unrated small carriers would automatically be lumped in with unsafe carriers and shippers, brokers, and freight forwarders would be far less likely to use their services, effectively starving them out of business.

Source: fleetowner, overdriveonline