Report: FMCSA Can Improve Complaint Website

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) needs to improve its complaint data website, including making all material public, according to a government watchdog. 

The agency makes some of its complaint data available to the public, but not all of it, the report reads, which doesn’t match general policy, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued in September. 

The agency also may not be properly reviewing these grievances against motor carriers, according to the report, due to unclear guidance during the submission process. This could affect FMCSA’s ability to respond to an issue. 

FMCSA could also do a better job of outreach about the website, as the report states that “key target audiences” may be unaware that such a database exists. The GAO also noted that the website isn’t always easy to view on mobile devices and recommended that the agency fix this issue as “mobile access is particularly important for truck drivers.” 

Just under 42,000 complaints against truck companies were submitted to the database from 2017-2021, according to the report, 35,180 of which were closed.