NASTC Letter to Sean Duffy

July 15, 2026

The Honorable Sean P. Duffy
Secretary
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590

Dear Secretary Duffy:

I know it’s over-used and trite, but conventional wisdom contributed this nugget to me which I have found to be almost always correct.

“To continue to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result is a sure sign of insanity”

Let’s apply this axiom to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) from a historical perspective in search of an answer as to why they never admit they got it wrong, never roll anything back, and never apologize for the harm, expense, and “unintended consequences” that have devastated small carriers and owner/operators for over 25 years now. Let me say up front, NASTC very happily acknowledges all the positive changes you have made for trucking already. We greatly appreciate your strong leadership and responsiveness addressing major challenges in our industry.

I’m including in this package enclosure (1) which is one of the last remaining copies of, “In the Crosshairs” – America’s Truckers at Risk. This book was written and compiled almost at the same time FMCSA was officially created. It was a last ditch and desperate effort from Henry Seaton, our transportation attorney and myself to point out the idiocy of the Hours-of-Service proposal pushed through at the end of the Clinton Administration in 1999. Following our comments on the substance and process of the proposed rule, we were able to recruit several of our members to hypothetically run their trucks employing the proposed HOS. Though it spelled out how out of touch with reality the proposal was, FMCSA didn’t change a thing! Thank goodness Congress stepped in and refused to fund the rule and sent FMCSA back to the drawing board. Four years later in 2004, the new rule came out, and it remains the same rule that we’ve operated under since with the exception of some flexibility alterations made during Raymond Martinez’s tenure as the Administrator. NASTC’s comments are mentioned several times in that final rule.

On or about the same time, 1999, one of the largest for-hire carrier’s safety numbers had deteriorated to the point that they requested and received a waiver to install electronic logging devices in their trucks. They utilize these devices still today. When ELD’s were mandated in 2019, they had been using them for almost 2 decades. It would be interesting to compare their true safety numbers, i.e., accident frequency, property damage, and fatalities before and after ELD implementation to see if there has been a measurable improvement. When CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) came into being in 2010, we did a study using the government’s Safestat data on the 36 largest carriers and based on the three safety criteria mentioned above, this carrier was the fifth worst. (See Enclosure

(2)). Had the agency used a little common sense and used WERNER’s safety numbers as a benchmark from 1999 to 2019, they might have come to the same conclusion that we did after their 1st decade and that is: mandating ELD’s will have very little, if any positive effect on safety numbers – hold the mandate and let the companies that need it to compete in the SAFETY marketplace, use it.

The industry’s true safety numbers i.e., accidents, fatalities, and property damage have worsened to an alarming degree since 2010, the year CSA came out. And, by the way, if you were to mandate the universal use of ELD’s by everyone, wouldn’t it have made some sense to standardize the specs uniformly for creating them? Who could possibly predict the disasters caused by the agency who decided to allow manufactures to SELF-CERTIFY the equipment? I believe the GAO or someone with common sense needs to put his arms around the billions of dollars wasted by small carriers to retrofit ELD’s. To make matters worse, it’s obvious to small carriers and owner-operators that a simple rule requiring all MC holders to audit all driver logs, every trip, every day with a simple and affordable app, would have eliminated the need entirely for mandated ELD’s. The agency would have had the data to hold all MC holders accountable based on LOG AUDITS. To my knowledge there is no such regulation in the 800-page rule book.

I could go on with my arm chair quarterbacking historical condemnation of FMCSA and there’s plenty more to add, but I’m going to return to my original definition of insanity doing the same things over and over will not produce different results, nor improve trucking safety numbers. And, me making the same arguments that fall on deaf ears over and over again will not give different results.

I have been making those arguments on behalf of the unrepresented and unappreciated in trucking for 37 years. I’m hoping this package or parting gift will be opened and read. I have a large amount of confidence in the current administration, the current FMCSA director, and the current Secretary of Transportation. Here are some parting questions and suggestions going forward:

• All the FMCSA administrators have been political appointments at the behest of large trucking, i.e. the American Trucking Association (ATA). Challenge some of their suggestions as self-serving and monopolistic notions designed to thwart small carriers and OO/Ops from being competitive.
• Get more input from million-mile drivers and replace some of the so called safety advocates with industry folks on the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee.
• Don’t always look to the enforcement community for policy – they are naturally adversarial to truckers in general and curry favor with the safety organizations as if in a popularity contest.
• Don’t look always to CVSA for policy – they are an NGO (non-governmental organization), funded by FMCSA’s budget (the taxpayers), and populated by non-elected ex enforcement folks that demand a bigger budget and more illegitimate power each year – a bureaucratic group that’s more autonomous than the agency. I think they primarily authored the debacle of all debacles – CSA.
• Hold the agency and Congress responsible for the following:

Why were the goal posts moved with trucking statistically by very quietly adding class 7 trucks into our numbers?

Why were the criteria for AHI events (Apnea-Hypopnea Index) tightened up by almost 50% several years ago? Results: what was a very acceptable AHI of 15 was suddenly alarmingly high at 28 by moving the goal posts. Why were certified medical advisors ever put into play and why were they all trained to exercise STOP BANG protocol for apnea?

Why rollout policies before they’re ready – ELD’s, CSA, Certified Medical Examiners, Driver Physical cards going cardless, self-certified ELD makers and now, MOTUS?

I have just received a white paper written by the head of the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA). His resume is impressive and solid and many of his points I somewhat agree with. I’m curious as to how much of his “white paper” was generated by AI? It’s obvious he’s from large trucking, and its obvious that many of his proposals fall into the category of doing the same old things over and over and expecting a different result. Right out of the gate he asks for more funding and more resources. I understand that there are 1,000 folks in FMCSA and almost 50% of them are coming to work at least 3 days per week! I don’t know how many folks there are in CVSA, but for an NGO, they have a huge budget and number in the 100’s. FMCSA- has been charged with auditing all new entrants and rating carriers. The agency is auditing timely about 10% or less of the new carriers and as far as ratings go, because they’re too safe to have enough events to get into the system, only a small percentage have a rating at all. This is unacceptable. We have offered suggestions on how to rate all carriers by contracting this function out to the individual states and having the carriers pay for such ratings, not the taxpayers. This suggestion, as with many others, has received no response.

Scrap CSA entirely and start over. Stop allowing CVSA’s unfettered and questionable authority to make policy and rules without respect for the Administrative Procedure Act. I see that they just issued new criteria to put trucks out of service – they can’t legally do this.

Our new administrator comes from CVSA and the enforcement community. He’s already stated that “we need to be careful what we ask for.”

I fear his solution to cleaning up the safety mess we’re in the midst of in trucking will mean more funding and more regulations. I don’t think that’s the answer. There is simply too large a disparity between compliance and true safety. Better rule making will close that gap considerably.

I would suggest strongly as I have for 30+ years:

1. The number one safety issue in trucking is driver turnover. All the large carriers and many TCA members have turnover rates north of 100%. And, there is not now nor has there ever been a driver shortage.
2. Hold all states (blue or red) accountable for applying the rules to all MC holders and all CDL holders. Several very identifiable states are guilty of ignoring the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and allowing unqualified and sometimes illegal folks behind the wheel of MC holder’s trucks.
3. Help fight fraud and start to reel in the lawyers with strong tort reform.

I am also including as Enclosure (3) a copy of our latest newsletter in which you’ll find related articles. 

Please accept this package in the spirit in which it’s meant. As always, NASTC would like to be considered as part of the solution, not part of the problem. Again, thank you for listening to us and acting to improve the lives and livelihoods of America’s trucking sector.

Sincerely,

David Owen,
President, NASTC

CC: Jim Edwards
Derek Barrs

Enclosure: (1) “In the CrossHairs” (2) Statistical data from 2010 (3) 2nd Quarter, NASTC Newsletter