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January 5, 2000 10:15 AM, EST

Appointing an impartial director of the new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration occupies the top spot of CRASH’s agenda for 2000.

Leaders of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways have said whoever is appointed as the chief trucking safety regulator must be free of any conflicts of interest with regard to the trucking industry (12-20, p. 3).

The new agenda for CRASH, known for its anti-trucking rhetoric, is smaller than last year’s 12-point proposal. Although CRASH pushed unsuccessfully in 1999 to transfer the jurisdiction over truck safety from the Federal Highway Administration to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the safety office was taken from FHWA and set up as a stand-alone agency within the Department of Transportation.

The group also said truck drivers should be included under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which would give them an eight-hour workday.

For the full story, see the Jan. 3 print edition of Transport Topics. .