Budget in Brief Table of Contents | DOT.gov

U.S. Department of Transportation
Fiscal Year 2009 Budget In Brief

FEDERAL MOTOR CARRIER SAFETY ADMINISTRATION

Overview: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) primary mission is to prevent commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities and injuries. Large trucks represent about 4 percent of registered vehicles; however, they account for 8 percent of the travel volume on our Nation’s highways. Approximately 12 percent of all the people killed in motor vehicle crashes die in crashes involving a large truck. In 2006, approximately 113,000 people were injured in crashes involving large trucks and 4,995 people died. This compares to 114,000 injuries and 5,240 deaths in 2005. While progress is being made toward the Department’s goal of saving lives and reducing injuries by preventing truck and bus crashes, too many people continue to be injured and die as a result of crashes involving large trucks and buses. The 2009 budget request for FMCSA, $541 million, will help meet this challenge and support Departmental efforts towards the achievement of its strategic goals and performance targets, specifically in new key focus areas: passenger vehicle occupants, non-occupants (pedestrians, cyclists, etc.), motorcycle riders, and large trucks and buses.

FY 2009 Budget

Motor Carrier Safety Operations & Programs: $234 million is requested to support critical motor carrier program activities that will reduce crashes, save lives, and prevent injuries on our Nation’s highways. The FY 2009 budget proposes the following funding requests aimed at meeting DOT’s strategic goals and performance targets:

• Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety — $193.5 million is dedicated to reducing the incidence and severity of commercial truck and bus crashes by advancing motor carrier standards and rulemaking; increasing compliance with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations through enforcement operations; enforcing safety regulations at the borders; extending motor carrier safety education and best practices; overseeing certification of physical qualifications to operate motor carriers; improving commercial motor vehicle safety information and analysis; and advancing technological solutions. This funding will also seek to reduce the number and severity of commercial motor vehicle hazardous materials (HAZMAT) incidents through enforcement and compliance operations, research, and technology.
• Commercial Motor Vehicle Security — $7.4 million is requested to improve the security of motor carrier transport of hazardous materials through outreach and security operations.
• Commercial Motor Vehicle Productivity — $3.7 million is requested to improve the efficiency and integrity of commercial truck and bus transportation by ensuring compliance with Federal Motor Carrier Commercial Regulations through increased household goods carrier enforcement, education, and outreach efforts, and maintaining a nationwide safety violation and consumer complaints telephone hotline.
• Commercial Motor Vehicle Global Connectivity — $0.4 million is requested to facilitate a more efficient cross border motor carrier transportation system that enables economic growth and development.
• Organizational Excellence — $29 million is requested to meet the objectives of the President’s Management Agenda in the areas of strategic management of human capital, citizen-centered e-government, competitive sourcing, financial and procurement performance, and budget and performance integration. Efforts focus on evaluating and improving business practices and processes that support program delivery.

Motor Carrier Safety Grants: $307 million is requested to maintain aggressive State enforcement of interstate commercial truck and bus regulations as part of the Federal/State partnership aimed at meeting DOT’s strategic goals and performance targets. Motor Carrier Safety Grants support both Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety and Hazardous Materials Safety. Included within this request is:

• Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) State Grants — $209 million will be used to support State motor carrier compliance reviews; conduct roadside inspections; enforce violations noted in roadside inspections; and ensure that new commercial trucking firms pass a safety audit within the first 18 months of operations in order to receive permanent registration.

• International Border Enforcement — State safety enforcement efforts at the international borders are funded at $32 million to ensure Mexican and Canadian trucks and buses adhere to the same safety standards as U.S. motor carriers.
• Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks (CVISN) Grants — Through the $25 million CVISN grant program, State enforcement officials will be provided a framework to exchange safety information so they can focus resources on high-risk and previously un-inspected commercial vehicles and operators.
• State Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) — $25 million is included to improve State CDL oversight activities to prevent unqualified drivers from being issued licenses.
• Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS) — $8 million is included to enable FMCSA to work with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) to complete specifications for the new CDLIS system. FMCSA will begin providing grants to States to assist them in making changes to their licensing systems to incorporate the new CDLIS specifications.
• Performance Registration Information Systems and Management (PRISM) — $5 million is provided for the PRISM program, which links State motor vehicle registration systems with carrier safety data in order to identify unsafe commercial trucks and buses.
• Safety Data Improvement Grants — The Safety Data Improvement Grants will provide $3 million so States can purchase equipment to support data improvement activities, hire staff to manage data quality improvement programs, revise outdated crash report forms, hire staff to code and enter crash data, train law enforcement officers in collecting crash data, develop software to transfer data from the State repository to SAFETYNET database management system, and purchase software for field data collection and data transfer.