Truck Safety: Improvements Needed in Fhwa's Motor Carrier Safety Program: Rced-91-30

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the Federal Highway Administration's (FHwA) efforts to promote the safe operation of commercial motor vehicles, focusing on the progress FHwA made in: (1) rating motor carriers' safety fitness; and (2) ensuring that motor carriers with less than satisfactory safety fitness ratings correct their deficiencies. GAO found that FHwA: (1) by May 1990, rated the safety fitness of about 84,300 of the approximately 213,000 active interstate carriers; (2) did not expect to meet its September 30, 1992 deadline for rating all carriers because of a constantly changing motor carrier universe and a limited number of safety investigators; (3) assigned less than satisfactory ratings to 70 percent of the carriers it evaluated; and (4) did not sufficiently ensure that motor carriers corrected deficiencies, failed to ensure that carriers submitted certification letters of corrected deficiencies, and performed limited and untimely follow-up compliance reviews of only 17 percent of carriers. GAO believes that legislation enacted in 1990, if properly implemented, would encourage carriers to improve their safety management controls and correct their deficiencies.