A truck driver hauling metal pipes made a right-hand turn in Topeka, Kansas, in February 2021, causing the heavy equipment to slide off the semi-trailer, slam into five vehicles and another truck, and kill one person.
It was later revealed that the driver had an expired medical certificate and lacked the required record of duty status. The truck was also missing an up-to-date annual inspection and had several load-securement violations.
A month before the crash, inspectors conducted a “remote” investigation of the trucking company, meaning they never visited the actual business and instead reviewed its documents virtually. Investigators closed the probe after a quick phone call with the company.
Such “virtual” inspections were the standard at the time.
During the earlier audit, the trucking company noted that the driver later involved in the tragic event was not employed by them, but said they kept him on the books because he would work for them on occasion.
After the COVID pandemic broke out, the Biden administration issued directives in 2020 requiring inspectors to stop conducting in-person inspections and instead opt for “virtual” checks of trucking companies online. The policy continued after the pandemic until Trump officials officially scrapped it in March, according to an internal Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) memo obtained by The Daily Wire.
In the memo, Philip W. Thomas, deputy associate administrator for safety at the FMCSA, wrote that the “remote” audits “inhibit the ability to fully assess the motor carrier’s compliance and safety measures.”
“This reduces the overall effectiveness of the onsite investigation process. Now that the public health emergency has ended, FMCSA is reinstating its pre-pandemic standard of conducting investigations with a meaningful physical presence at the motor carrier’s PPOB [Principal Place of Business] per PPOB policy,” Thomas wrote.
The memo also emphasized that “onsite investigations must involve substantive engagement” and should not just involve quick visits to the company’s address or mere drive-bys of their business sites.
When an auditor arrives at the carrier’s business location, FMCSA instructs them to conduct a “collaborative in person questioning cycle” with the trucking company, the memo stated.
“This approach supports the primary goals of the investigation to identify and confirm violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), diagnose the underlying breakdowns in the Safety Management Cycle (SMC) and their root causes, and determine corrective actions that will restore safety management processes and promote sustained compliance,” Thomas wrote.
Before closing an audit, the investigator “shall submit the completed investigative report to their” supervisors. The report on the findings then must be “thoroughly reviewed for quality and legal sufficiency by the division office, and any other required reviewers.”
Only in some “extenuating circumstances” can investigators close investigations virtually if there are “difficult travel considerations and/or time constraints,” the memo added.
The massive change comes as the Trump administration intensifies its oversight of the trucking industry following devastating collisions caused by illegal immigrant truckers, along with unqualified drivers.
As part of the crackdown, the Department of Transportation shut down hundreds of trucking schools that put non-English-speaking drivers on the roads. Some of the schools failed to provide “adequate space” for drivers to take driving tests, had unlicensed instructors, and often lacked classrooms, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a press conference last month.
The Department of Transportation has taken more than 28,000 drivers out of service in the last year and a half for failing to meet English-proficiency requirements. The department has also forced states to cancel more than 30,000 foreign drivers’ licenses.
