Trucking interests take partisan stances over Ferro's nomination to head FMCSA
A trucking company executive calls Anne S. Ferro a "realist;" a Teamster official said she was "an apologist for the failure of FMCSA to improve the safety record of commercial vehicles.”
The Trucker Staff
6/5/2009
WASHINGTON — Trucking interests Friday took traditional partisan stances over the nomination of Anne S. Ferro to be the next administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Trucking officials were supportive, safety advocacy groups opposed the nomination.
President Barack Obama announced his decision Thursday to place Ferro in charge of the agency whose primary mission is to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses.
“Ms. Ferro’s extensive experience in promoting driver, vehicle and highway safety will serve the nation well. As administrator of the Maryland Motor Vehcile Administration she developed a reputation as a tough, but fair regulator,” Bill Graves, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, said.
The former chairman of the MMTA lauded Ferro’s ability to get the job done.
In addition to her intelligence, “her personal skills are absolutely outstanding,” said Joe Cowan, president of Cowan Systems, Maryland’s largest trucking company.
“She’s a realist,” Cowan said. “Because she was on the truckers’ side, she’s an excellent choice — instead of some bureaucrat.”
But the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Friday called Ferro “an apologist for the failure of FMCSA to improve the safety record of commercial vehicles.”
In a letter to President Barack Obama, Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa, along with Daphne Izer of Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT), John Lannen of the Truck Safety Coalition and Jennifer Tierney of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) stated that ineffective regulatory leadership and the trucking industry’s opposition to safety reforms are to blame for the lack of progress.
The letter went on to cite Ferro’s defense of the current Hours of Service as an indication of her “stay-the course attitude.”
“We firmly believe that the individual appointed to this agency should not come from the very industry the agency is required to regulate, especially given the trucking industry’s positions on these health and safety issues,” the letter stated. “Ms. Ferro consistently supports the trucking industry party-line on motor carrier issues in opposition to positions taken by consumer, health and safety groups, truck crash victims and their families and the hard-working men and women who drive trucks. We cannot support a candidate who represents the Bush Administration ‘status quo’ rather than embracing your call for change.”
Lena Pons, a policy analyst at Public Citizen, a group that has long opposed the current HOS rules, said her organization was “pretty concerned about Ferro's position on HOS.
“We haven't made a determination whether we will actively oppose her nomination, but her ties to the trucking industry are of concern,“ Pons said, adding Public Citizen would rather see someone in the position that shared her organization's views on HOS.
“Driver fatigue is one of the biggest issues in trucking today,“ she said.
In addition to Cowan and Graves, other positive statements about the nomination came from trucking association presidents, an official of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and a former administrator of FMCSA.
Jim Runk, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, has worked with Ferro on numerous regional trucking issues over the years, and initially met her when she worked in the Maryland DOT. He was quick to praise her intelligence and political savvy.
“She’s very smart, she knows the industry, she’s tactful,” Runk said. “I think she certainly would understand what the role is in that position. She brought a lot of background with her when she came in on [the trucking association] side of the industry.”
Ferro should have no problems stepping up to the big bureaucracy of the federal DOT, Runk noted. He also characterized her as “fair,” and said she would be able to work with the industry and the feds on important regulatory matters.
Dale Bennett, executive vice president of the Virginia Trucking Association has worked on regional matters with Ferro as well, in both her governmental and trucking roles.
“Anne has got a long, proven career of being a fantastic advocate for highway and driver safety. She is a very effective administrator,” Bennett said. “Anne is wonderful choice for the FMCSA.”
“Anne will provide good leadership to the agency because she has worked in state government and in the private sector and will bring a nice perspective to the job,” Lane Kidd, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, said following the announcement.
“We believe that Anne is an excellent choice to be the nation's top trucking regulator,“ John Haulsladen, president of the Minnesota Trucking Association, said. “In our experience, we have found her to be thoughtful, fair and full of common sense. We applaud the Obama administration for this choice.”
“Based on her background and her experience in a cross-section of positions that deal with commercial vehicles she should have a well-rounded [outlook] … and may very well be a good administrator,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.
“Anne and I served together on the AAMVAnet (the information system that operates the CDL program in all the states) Board of Directors. She understands and believes in traffic safety,” John Hill, the man she will succeed at FMCSA, said from his home in Indiana. “Equally important, she has incredible insight into how the motor carrier industry operates — something that is essential when developing regulations that affect millions of drivers and hundreds of thousands of trucking and bus companies in the United States. The challenges are great for her in the coming months but Anne Ferro’s professional and personal integrity will serve her well in this new role.”
Ferro says she is a woman who “loves trucks.”
Between 1997 and 2003, she served as Maryland Motor Vehicle (MMV) administrator.
When Ferro took over the job as president and CEO of the MMTA in 2004, she told The Port of Baltimore publication that she took the job for two reasons:
“After spending so many years in government I wanted to learn about the private sector. And the other reason is — I love trucks,” she said.
As MMTA chief she said her priority was simple: “ … to advocate for the [trucking] industry,” adding that most people “have an opinion about [commercial] trucks — they don’t like them. We have to work to change that.”