STRONGER ENFORCEMENT WOULD HELP IMPROVE MOTOR CARRIER SAFETY. REPORT TO THE HONORABLE ELIZABETH H. DOLE THE SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
The Department of Transportation's Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety enforces laws and regulations governing the safe operation of interstate motor carriers and hazardous materials shippers. The carriers and shippers maintain records of safety activities such as maintenance and vehicle inspections. The Bureau audits (reviews) these records for compliance with federal regulations. In fiscal year 1984 the Bureau's 94 full-time safety investigator staff were responsible for auditing about 200,000 carriers, about 18,000 shippers, and 4 million commercial vehicles. GAO found many differences in how (1) safety investigators selected carriers for audit, developed ratings, and identified actions to take on the basis of audit, results and (2) enforcement cases were processed. The differences raise questions about the Bureau field staff needed specific guidance on the selecting, rating, and enforcement process and that Bureau headquarters did not have direct control over its field staff, preventing adequate oversight of field activities. GAO is making a number of recommendations to improve the implementation and oversight of the Bureau's enforcement program. The Department generally agreed with GAO's suggestions. (Author)
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Corporate Authors:
U.S. General Accounting Office
441 G Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20548 - Publication Date: 1985-9-5
Media Info
- Features: Appendices; Tables;
- Pagination: 72 p.
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Hazardous materials; Improvements; Measures of effectiveness; Motor carriers; Recommendations; Traffic law enforcement; Vehicle safety
- Uncontrolled Terms: Effectiveness
- Old TRIS Terms: Vehicular safety
- Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Law; Motor Carriers; Research; Safety and Human Factors; I81: Accident Statistics;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00453660
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: GAO/RCED-85-64
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Jul 31 1986 12:00AM