FMCSA Pulls Back Planned Minimum Insurance Rulemaking

Alexandria, Va. — The United Motorcoach Association (UMA) expressed its gratitude to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao for halting an advance notice of proposed rulemaking that was seeking information to justify requiring higher minimum insurance levels for commercial motor carriers. In withdrawing the measure, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) noted that there was insufficient data to indicate that an increase was necessary.

UMA members have been fighting this regulatory overreach for more than two years, prioritizing a withdrawal of this measure each year since it was first proposed in November of 2014. A great deal of credit for this commonsense reversal is due to the work of House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster and Representative Scott Perry (R-PA), who worked tirelessly to pass the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act in 2015. The FAST Act included provisions to ensure that minimum insurance limits for commercial motor carriers could not be raised absent a complete analysis that supported any increase. That measure helped fend off what would have been an expensive, burdensome and unwarranted mandate on the nation's bus and motorcoach companies.

"We had the facts on our side, and some great allies in the House, and we got the word out to our members," said Dale Krapf, chairman of UMA and Krapf's Coaches. "Now, two years later, the FMCSA's action represents a victory for every bus and motorcoach operator, and it shows the power and importance of advocating for our industry and pushing back against regulatory overreach at every turn. We owe a debt of gratitude to Chairman Shuster and Congressman Perry for codifying the need for further study and to Secretary Elaine Chao for her decisive action to halt this poorly conceived plan from moving forward."

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