Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration April 1, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FMCSA announces a public meeting concerning implementation of the North American Standard for Protection Against Shifting or Falling Cargo. The meeting's purpose is to discuss a process for ensuring consistent interpretation of the harmonized cargo securement standards by FMCSA and the Canadian Provinces, such as interpretation issues raised by U.S. enforcement agencies and motor carriers and potential implementation issues for Canadian Provinces and motor carriers operating in Canada. On September 27, 2002, FMCSA published a final rule revising its regulations on cargo securement for commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) operated in interstate commerce; and motor carriers were given until January 1, 2004 to comply with the new regulations. The agency's new standards were based on the North American Cargo Securement Standard Model Regulations, which reflected at the time the results of a multi- year comprehensive research program to evaluate U.S. and Canadian cargo securement regulations, motor carrier industry best practices, and recommendations from public meetings involving U.S. and Canadian industry experts, Federal, State, and Provincial enforcement officials, and other interested parties. Since then, Canada's Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety approved a new National Safety Code Standard for cargo securement (September 23, 2004). Full implementation of Canada's new cargo securement requirements is expected by this summer.

This notice publishes the FMCSA decision to renew the exemptions from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for 13 individuals. FMCSA has statutory authority to exempt individuals from vision standards if the exemptions granted will not compromise safety. The agency has concluded that granting these exemptions will provide a level of safety that will be equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety maintained without the exemptions for these commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers.