Twenty-ninth of June 2012, the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act of 2012” also known as “MAP-21 Act” was passed by Congress. This act is a comprehensive transportation-funding bill with provisions that directly impact the trucking industry. On July 6th, same year, it was signed into law by President Obama.
The purpose of the bill is to increase industry standards. This includes designing the highest safety standards for drivers, creating highway safety and transit programs, and minimizing possible risks on the road. However, the bill entails a number of new requirements and regulations that have negatively affected countless trucking companies.
While there are several pros and cons to MAP-21, the largest concern among those in the industry is the increase of broker bond to $75,000 from $10,000. Such a large increase in collateral is hard to be met for smaller transportation companies. Less of the “little guys” means a larger monopoly by the big guys. Less competition usually means price increases by the monopolies.
The 7x increase in freight broker bond has led large frustrations in the industry. Although MAP-21 Act aims to raise the bar for the overall trucking transportation industry, it is hard to deny that those operating in small and mid-sized transportation brokerages were affected by the significant increase. The upset emotions in the industry have led to lawsuit attempts to stop the increase, but all have failed to succeed in making progress.
Despite the bill’s huge impact to freight brokers, there are some that praise the efforts towards increasing safety. We’ll have to see how all of the pros and cons shake out.