IST Statement in Support of Robin Hutcheson's Nomination to Lead FMCSA

The Institute for Safer Trucking strongly supports the nomination of Robin Hutcheson to serve as Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

As Acting Administrator, Hutcheson has demonstrated a genuine commitment to engaging all stakeholders in this space – a central tenet of our mission. Within weeks of assuming her new role, she reached out to our organization to better understand the perspective of truck crash survivors and the families of truck crash victims. We appreciated her candor, her understanding of critical safety regulations, and her consideration of much-needed safety advances, like requiring the use of speed limiters in large trucks, that fall under the FMCSA purview.

Her work, both in the Department of Transportation and with organizations like the National Association of City Transportation Officials, highlight a career devoted to improving our nation’s infrastructure and to making our roads safer. At a time when truck crash deaths and injuries remain unacceptably high, the Institute for Safer Trucking and our volunteers are hopeful that Hutcheson’s experience and expertise will lead the FMCSA in a direction that will reduce these tragic trends and make trucking safer.

The FMCSA has not had an appointed leader since 2019. This is unconscionable given the nearly 5,000 people who lost their lives in large truck crashes in 2020--a 31 percent increase since 2010.

We urge the United States Senate to swiftly confirm Hutcheson as the next FMCSA Administrator.