Congress Looks to Spank the Moving Industry

Congress Spanks Moving Companies with New Laws
Updating a moving companies tariff will be key to staying compliant in the month of June 2022

This week, Congress issued massive changes to the requirements of moving companies with new and revised policies. Through Congress, the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) has provided a series of new rules and regulations that impact all movers, shippers, brokers, and carriers. Household goods companies and organizations are now reacting to how serious the policies and infractions are, which officially go into effect on June 27, 2022.

Crucial policy changes that the FMCSA has made include: an increased likelihood of audits and suspensions, new fines and suspensions for tariff-related infractions, stricter fines, and penalties for companies or individuals supplying blank or unfilled moving documents, a more streamlined consumer complaint system, regulation revisions to the mandatory Rights and Responsibilities document, and increased license suspensions for hostage load violations. In fact, a consumer shipment hostage situation can now lead to a suspension of between 12 and 36 months.

The apparent goal of the FMCSA's policy changes is to fine non-compliant carriers out of existence. This should come as no surprise to moving industry professionals. They witnessed an increase of almost 8,300 complaints directed at carriers from 2020 to 2021. That increase led to a new record of more consumer complaints than were ever previously recorded by the government. The complaints took place amid the devastating 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, which was when millions of US citizens were depending on the assistance of moving companies.

Each of the estimated 8,300 complaints was added to the FMCSA's consumer complaint database. In fact, the FMCSA reported that fines increased 62 percent during carrier investigations from 2020 to 2021. There is strong speculation that the combination of increased fines and penalties led to the FMCSA adjusting its current policies.

Third-party registration services, such as Moving Authority Association, have been racing for the last three weeks to help carriers to become compliant before the FMCSA's due date of June 27, 2022. Rachel Weiss, the Operations Manager at Moving Authority stated that "the whole team has been working overtime to keep all carriers compliant." Ms. Weiss also commented that her organization has updated all contracts and tariffs so that carriers can be compliant with the policy changes.

https://www.movingauthority.com

Writer: John Spark 

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