Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR) are federal regulations that set safety and operation standards for companies and individuals operating trucks, vans, buses, and other commercial motor vehicles involved in interstate commerce. Interstate commerce (as opposed to intrastate commerce) occurs when a driver travels from state to state. Therefore, a driver involved in intrastate commerce (stays within one state) is not subject to the FMCSRs. However, most states adopt regulations similar to the FMCSRs.
For example, a commercial motor vehicle driver going from Missouri to Kansas would be subject to the federal regulations but a driver only staying within Kansas would not be subject to the federal regulations. Nonetheless, the driver staying within Kansas would be subject to Kansas commercial motor vehicle regulations. Rules found within the FMCSRs cover a wide variety of topics including qualification and licensing of drivers, vehicle specifications, inspections, maintenance, insurance, vehicle marking, cargo securement, and other topics.
You can find the FMCSRs in the Code of Federal Regulation and the rules are written and enforced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) (an agency within the US Department of Transportation) and its state partners.
The FMCSA is allowed to impose civil penalties against motor carriers, drivers, and other entities who violate the FMCSRs. A civil penalty is a monetary fine imposed by a government agency as compensation for violation (this is not to be confused with a criminal punishment which generally results in jail time).
With this in mind, the monetary amount of each penalty is determined by Congress in the statutes, who in turn gives enforcement powers to the FMCSA. The FMCSRs generally list the maximum civil penalties that may be imposed for various violations. However, they do set some minimum amounts.
In determining the actual penalty, the FMCSA considers the maximum/minimum amounts identified in the statutes, as well as a number of different considerations that include:
When the FMSCA assesses penalties for violations of notices and orders, consideration is given to good faith efforts to achieve compliance with the terms of the notices and orders. If a CMV owner or operator fails to pay a civil penalty in full within 90 days after the deadline, he or she is prohibited from operating in interstate commerce starting on the 91st day. A few examples of civil penalties include:
A rather long and tedious process goes into adopting a new FMCSA regulation. They don’t simply appear overnight. The process to get a regulation adopted is best described in 5 main steps: