Rick Patrick
rick@greenepublishing.com
Former Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) chief Derek Barrs, a Madison native, has been nominated by President. Donald Trump’s administration to become the new head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The FMCSA falls under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The agency, which has approximately 1,100 employees is primarily concerned with reducing the number of crashes and injuries involving commercial vehicles. This is nothing new for Barrs, who has many years of experience in the area of highway safety through his career with the FHP and in the private sector. Most recently, Barrs has been serving on the Flagler County School Board. Barrs has also been the Associate Vice President for HNTB, a transportation infrastructure company.
Barrs stated that it was the connections and relationships within the transportation industry developed over the years that led the American Trucking Association, the Truckload Carriers Association and the National Tank Truck Carriers to reach out to Department of Transportation head Sean Duffy suggesting Barrs for the position. When he was contacted by the Transportation Department asking him to consider the job, Barrs stated that “after a lot of prayer,” he accepted the nomination.
Barrs stated that he hopes to build “partnerships with the trucking industry,” should his nomination be confirmed. “The FMCSA is committed to commercial vehicle safety,” said Barrs. “This is true for not only commercial vehicles, but for non-commercial vehicles as well.” One challenge Barrs said the FMCSA could be facing in the near future is that of “automatous vehicles” which are driverless trucks that were once the subject of science fiction, but could very well become a fixture on the nation’s highways in the near future.
Barrs’ nomination will be forwarded to the Senate committee on Science Transportation and Commerce, Chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). If Barrs’ nomination passes through the committee, it will go before the entire senate for a confirmation vote. It is as of yet unknown how long that process may take.