WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration FMCSA is planning to study the prevalence and severity of sexual assault and sexual harassment (SASH) experienced across the commercial motor vehicle (CMV) industry, particularly among drivers.
The FMCSA made a request for information (RFI) on the subject in Thursday, Feb. 8, Federal Register listing.
“FMCSA seeks information on how best to design and conduct a study to identify, categorize and assess context and trends of SASH in the CMV industry,” the listing states. “FMCSA is particularly interested in how to support women currently in these jobs and those seeking to enter the CMV industry.”
This RFI seeks information on how best to approach this study holistically in terms of statistical sampling, study design and administering the appropriate data collection efforts, FMCSA officials say.
“FMCSA seeks information on how best to treat categories of gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity in the study, as well as best practices in designing questions that use the latest standards for SASH research and address the breadth and lifecycles of careers in the CMV industry,” according to the listing.
Additionally, the study “builds on recommendations from FMCSA’s Women of Trucking Advisory Board (WOTAB) to better understand problems of SASH among drivers, thereby helping identify possible countermeasures.”
FMCSA officials say they will use the study’s results to understand any potential regulatory or policy measures needed to improve driver safety and mitigate SASH, as well as to work with industry partners on outreach and other efforts to improve driver safety through SASH prevention.
Ultimately, the FMCSA says it wants to “support the participation of women in the CMV industry.”
In a 2022 whitepaper titled “Addressing Gender Bias and Harassment in the Trucking Industry,” the Women in Trucking Association (WIT) reported that while a majority of poll respondents (55%) said that the trucking industry overall is safe for women, many have experienced verbally offensive comments or verbal threats within the last five years.
Female drivers reported that other concerns are unwanted physical advances or rape, with 39% of respondents saying they have received unwanted physical advances more than once, according to WIT.
Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and raised in East Texas, John Worthen returned to his home state to attend college in 1998 and decided to make his life in The Natural State. Worthen is a 20-year veteran of the journalism industry and has covered just about every topic there is. He has a passion for writing and telling stories. He has worked as a beat reporter and bureau chief for a statewide newspaper and as managing editor of a regional newspaper in Arkansas. Additionally, Worthen has been a prolific freelance journalist for two decades, and has been published in several travel magazines and on travel websites.
Sexual harassment is still happening – not only at the driver level but in management of transportation companies . They seem to be untouchable- a blind eye is given .
Been a truck driver 39 years and have been dealing with various issues of harassment my entire career . Very sad
Actually, a majority of the people in United States of America are in state of ignorance. LETS READ BETWEEN LINES The reason FMCSA is doing it because you see, the reason that Illegal immigration and immigrants are coming into United States because It is orchestrated by Walmart Amazon big distributions in America in red and blue states, especially Wisconsin and RED STATES. Red state distributions CENTERS are filled with these illegal immigrants who are being hired by American businessmen. FMCSA want to bring all these illegal immigrants similar to the ones in Florida that do not speak English and drive commercial motor vehicles. And last week they put out a memo that give people Permits to drive that don’t even pass certain criteria. They’re setting the trucking industry up so that Americans would not discriminate against these migrants .. Although it is true, some people look like their black. Some people look like their white some people brown are not Americans like African Americans look like Somalian whites look like Europeans from Poland n balkans n Russians n brown Mexican America look like venezuelan… Sometime it doesn’t hurt to say hi to a fellow truck driver to understand where they come in from… I say hi to all the truck drivers. I opened the door for them. And just a few words yoll understand what you’re dealing with