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A. TOPICS BY TRANSPORT MODE.

Aviation

• Final Rule – Federal Aviation Administration “updates, simplifies, and streamlines rules of practice and procedure for filing and adjudicating complaints against federally-assisted airports”.

• Agency Notice – Federal Aviation Administration hereby, “publishes the entire Policy Regarding Airport Rates and Charges currently in effect in a single document”. This new comprehensive document does not either adopt or propose substantive changes to existing regulation.

• Agency Notice – Recent legislation (FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012) requires the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a statement of policy about “the circumstances in which the requirements of the [U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration] OSHA may be applied to crew members while working in an aircraft”. This FAA “Policy Statement” does not state policy as much as it invites comment.

• Agency Notice – Federal Aviation Administration finalizes the process by which aircraft owners and operators may ask the FAA to limit the FAA’s dissemination of their aircraft data by means of the Aircraft Situation Display to Industry (ASDI) data feed to the public.

Maritime

• Final Rule – “The Coast Guard is amending its regulations concerning the transfer of hazardous materials to and from bulk packaging on vessels. The Coast Guard is expanding the list of bulk packaging approved for hazardous material transfers to include International Maritime Organization (IMO) Type 1 and Type 2 portable tanks, United Nations (UN) portable tanks, and Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs).” 

• Final Rule – The U.S. Coast Guard is exempting specified seagoing barges from its inspection.

Motor Carriers

• Agency Notice – Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration “announces guidance concerning the implementation of certain provisions of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) concerning persons acting as a property broker or a freight forwarder” – including new financial security requirements for property brokers and freight forwarders.

Railroads

• Post-Lac-Mégantic Developments – PHMSA held their two-day meeting in late August to discuss regulatory responses, then PHMSA issued a formal call for ideas in the form of an “Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and Canada’s counterpart to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, wrote to PHMSA and Transport Canada (1) calling for new labeling regulations for flammable liquids carried in railcars, and (2) questioning the adequacy of Class 111 tank cars for carrying “low flash” flammable liquids like crude oil.

• Final Rule – Surface Transportation Board issues final rule to, “establish additional disclosure requirements for notices and petitions for exemption where the underlying lease or line sale includes an interchange commitment”.

B. TOPICS BY TRANSPORT POLICY.

No post this week.

C. TOPICS BY AGENCY INITIATIVE.

No post this week.

D. TOPICS BY LEGAL DISCIPLINE.

No post this week.  

E. NOTEWORTHY CRIMINAL ENFORCEMENT, CIVIL ACTIONS or INSPECTOR GENERAL AUDITS.

• Agency Notice – Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announces that it, “has begun using the Uniform Fine Assessment (UFA) Version 4.0 software to calculate the amounts of civil penalties for violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) and Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMRs)”.

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