H.r. Latham, ed pastor write in support of Section 425 of H.R. 4745. Provision prohibits Department of Transportation from increasing minimum financial responsibility. Authors: Department's own data shows that less than 0. Percent of truck-involved accidents result in damages that exceed current requirements.
H.r. Latham, ed pastor write in support of Section 425 of H.R. 4745. Provision prohibits Department of Transportation from increasing minimum financial responsibility. Authors: Department's own data shows that less than 0. Percent of truck-involved accidents result in damages that exceed current requirements.
H.r. Latham, ed pastor write in support of Section 425 of H.R. 4745. Provision prohibits Department of Transportation from increasing minimum financial responsibility. Authors: Department's own data shows that less than 0. Percent of truck-involved accidents result in damages that exceed current requirements.
H.r. Latham, ed pastor write in support of Section 425 of H.R. 4745. Provision prohibits Department of Transportation from increasing minimum financial responsibility. Authors: Department's own data shows that less than 0. Percent of truck-involved accidents result in damages that exceed current requirements.
Chairman Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies House Committee on Appropriations 2358A Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Ed Pastor Ranking Member Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies House Committee on Appropriations 2358A Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Latham and Ranking Member Pastor:
We write in support of Section 425 of H.R. 4745, and urge that this provision, which prohibits the Department of Transportation from moving forward with increases in the minimum level of financial responsibility for commercial property and passenger motor carriers, including private school bus operators and other private carriers, be included in the final Department of Transportation appropriations legislation for Fiscal Year 2015.
Our organizations represent thousands of individual businesses who operate trucks and buses located in every state and congressional district. These businesses, the vast majority of which are small businesses, are both critical to our nations economy and committed to safety on our nations highways. With this perspective, we are concerned about the negative impacts that an increase in financial responsibility requirements will have on the ability of our member companies to remain in business, and on highway safety.
The Department announced in April 2014 that it was moving forward with the development of regulations to increase minimum financial responsibility requirements for truck and bus companies. This is despite the fact that the Departments own data shows that less than 0.2 percent of truck-involved accidents result in damages that exceed the current requirements. On the bus side, the Department has not even analyzed passenger motor carrier data or accident claims history. The determination did not include any consultation with insurance experts or study of actuarial data, nor did it consider the impacts of higher insurance costs on truck and bus companies, especially small businesses and private fleets.
What is especially troubling about this rulemaking is that the Department cannot show any connection between higher minimum insurance requirements and improved safety performance by a truck or bus company. Indeed, with the Department already referencing insurance increases close to 500 percent, the resulting premium increases per truck or bus will lead to a significant number of our member companies significantly downsizing their fleets or leaving the industry altogether.
We are proud to represent thousands of safe truck and bus companies and thousands of professional drivers with millions of accident-free miles behind the wheel. These are the companies and drivers we need on the road. Policies that simply lead to higher operating costs, with no resulting safety improvements, only serve to drive them away from the truck and bus industries.
This rulemaking action, described as high priority, has been taken up by the Department without direction from Congress, and is moving forward while other actions with a direct impact on motor carrier safety languish with little to no action by the Department. At the very least, the Department should halt this action until the issue can be fully examined by Congress through hearings and legislative direction, as occurred when the current minimum financial responsibility requirements were enacted into law.
Section 425 would provide Congress with an opportunity to conduct oversight hearings and debate on a topic that will impact hundreds of thousands of motor carriers, both for-hire and private. As your Committees work to finalize Fiscal Year 2015 appropriations legislation for the Department of Transportation, we urge you to include the Houses Section 425 in the final agreement.