GAO Review of the Federal Highway Administration's Motor Carrier Safety Enforcement Activities

GAO discussed certain aspects of motor carrier safety enforcement activities and the organization of the Federal Highway Administration's (FHwA) Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety (BMCS). GAO believes that increased oversight of the safety audit procedures has the potential to improve motor carrier safety and a recent FHwA organizational change may increase BMCS ability to perform program oversight. GAO noted that, although BMCS has a process to select, rate, and identify actions based on audits, differences remain in the manner in which: (1) safety investigators select carriers for audit, develop ratings, and identify actions to take based on audit results; and (2) enforcement cases are processed. However, such differences do not necessarily indicate that audits are not being performed properly. GAO believes that these differences do raise questions about BMCS oversight of the Motor Carrier Safety Enforcement Program.