Washington D.C. – A top transportation consulting firm is alerting its clients and industry stakeholders to prepare now for new mandates likely to come during the Biden presidency.

In a blog post last week entitled Looking Back to See Forward – President Biden’s Regulatory Agenda for Trucking, Scopelitis Transportation Consulting, LLC (STC) advised stakeholders on what regulatory actions to expect over the next four years.

“Much of the Biden Administration’s regulatory agenda for trucking can be readily forecast by looking back at the Obama Administration efforts in 2016 that were shelved in 2017 by the Trump Administration,” STC analyzed.

Specifically, STC pointed out that the Trump Administration withdrew the following four Obama-led DOT rulemaking actions:

1. Increase in the minimum liability insurance limits,
2. Mandatory use of speed limiters,
3. CSA-based safety ratings; and
4. Sleep apnea screening criteria for medical examiners to screen drivers.

“It’s very likely these rules that were shelved by former President Trump will be front and center on the DOT-FMCSA agenda under President Biden, especially considering the Democrat-led House of Representatives passed a bill in Summer 2020 that included direction to the DOT to complete rules on each of these four issues,” STC advised.

The legislation STC referenced is the Moving Forward Act (MFA-HR 2), which included raising motor carriers’ liability insurance minimum from $750,000 to $2 million.

As Transportation Nation Network (TNN) recently reported, multiple sources on Capitol Hill say Democrats likely already have the votes to immediately pass similar legislation through both chambers of Congress and President Biden would likely sign it.

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Further, a new bill “could go to $4 million really easy,” another source predicted.

“That bill did not pass the Republican-controlled Senate in 2020 and, therefore, didn’t make it to the President,” STC noted. “But it contained a host of other Democrat policy priorities for trucking, like mandates for automatic emergency braking on all new large trucks and stronger rear underride guards for truck trailers — two more topics likely to be on DOT’s trucking agenda.”

These expected mandates are in addition to the onslaught of new environmental regulations the Biden Administration has promised to enact to combat climate change.

“Where the Trump Administration shunned new trucking mandates, the Biden Administration is expected to embrace them,” STC concluded.

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