FMCSA earmarks $118M to enhance trucking safety

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to award more than $118 million in grants to strengthen the safety of America’s roadways, enhance commercial vehicle enforcement, and provide high-quality training for military veterans entering the trucking industry.

The grants will direct critical resources to state and local partners to reduce crashes through data-driven enforcement, FMCSA reported. The investments also are intended to bolster the integrity of the commercial driver’s license system, ensuring only qualified drivers are behind the wheel, while supporting veterans transitioning into trucking with high-quality training.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, our department’s No. 1 mission is to ensure that every American gets home safely,” Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in a news release. “We’re backing aggressive enforcement and empowering states to keep unqualified, unvetted drivers off the road, investing in state-of-the-art technology to make our roads safer, and taking care of veterans interested in a career in trucking.”

The funding is being awarded through FMCSA’s three key competitive grant programs:

• $71.6 million in High Priority (HP) grants: HP-Commercial Motor Vehicle (HP-CMV) and HP-Innovative Technology Deployment (HP-ITD) grants support state and local enforcement efforts to reduce CMV-related crashes, safety data improvement projects, public awareness campaigns and high-visibility enforcement efforts targeting unsafe driving on high-risk CMV crash corridors, initiatives to improve the safe and secure movement of hazardous material, and the deployment of new technology to ensure CMV compliance with safety regulations.
• $43.8 million in Commercial Driver’s License Program Implementation (CDLPI) grants: These grants help states comply with federal regulations and ensure the CDL issuance process is secure, accurate, and resistant to fraud. CDLPI grants also ensure that only qualified drivers are eligible to receive and retain a CDL. At both the national and state levels, agencies responsible for any component of the CDL program can use funding to strengthen compliance oversight, provide training to prevent the masking of driving violations, and implement solutions that improve the timeliness of conviction processing between courts and state systems.
• $3.4 million in Commercial Motor Vehicle Operator Safety Training (CMVOST) grants: This program is dedicated to supporting current and former members of the U.S. Armed Forces, including National Guard and reservists, and their families by providing them with high-quality, safety-focused commercial driver training.

“These grants are about giving our partners the tools they need to be effective,” FMCSA Administrator Derek D. Barrs said. “Whether it’s deploying smart technology to identify unsafe vehicles [or] auditing CDL programs to prevent fraud, every dollar is focused on raising the bar for safety and ensuring only qualified drivers and compliant vehicles are on our roads.”