Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act of 2024
Floor Speech
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Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Maryland, the distinguished ranking member, for yielding, and the Republican manager from Kansas.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the bill, the Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act. This necessary bill which I am co-leading with my distinguished colleague, the chairman of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, Mr. Comer, has strong, bipartisan support. It passed through our committee 40-0.
I am thrilled that the chairman and I could partner, write, and introduce the Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act, which requires the United States Postal Service to collect, track, and report on serious crashes and fatalities involving vehicles transporting U.S. postal mail.
The chairman and I have both met with the families of truck crash victims. We have heard their painful stories and are committed to stopping preventable tragedies involving mail transport. These families-turned-advocates welcome this legislation which is endorsed by the Truck Safety Coalition.
In June of 2022, the Godines family was traveling back to their home in Gillette, Wyoming. Traveling behind the family on I-25 as they passed Greeley, Colorado, was a contract freight truck carrying U.S. mail on a U.S. Postal Service contract.
The truck's brakes were out of alignment, it was uninsured, and its driver had no commercial driver's license. When that truck carrying U.S. delivery material slammed into the back of the Godines' family vehicle, in an instant, Mr. Speaker, three generations of Godines were killed. They lost their lives, including a 3-month old baby, Tessleigh. Safety concerns about the freight contract trucking practices at the Postal Service have been increasing ever since.
Between 2020 and 2023, as has been noted, at least 79 people have been killed in crashes involving trucks contracted by the Postal Service. The true number is higher because just last year we learned that the Postal Service did not report serious crashes involving its trucking contractors.
That revelation raised serious questions about safety oversight by the USPS involving their contracted vehicles, including the troubling allegation that the Postal Service is managing truck freight operations which do not adhere to legal and commonsense safety standards.
The Postal Service has, for example, set delivery schedules requiring drivers to exceed hours of service requirements and has selected carriers with extensive records of safety violations. It looks like there is no vetting of these contractors at all.
Between December of 2020 and December of 2022, the Department of Transportation identified a frightening 466 Postal Service trucking contractors that had high rates of violations related to driving hours. In 2021 and 2022, 39 percent of trucking companies carrying U.S. mail by contract violated rules meant to prevent driver exhaustion and did so repeatedly. Between 2017 and 2022, one single trucking group contracted by USPS had broken those rules 200 times-plus.
When I asked the Postal Service for the number of deaths involved in the contracted transport of mail, the Postal Service said that they didn't have that information because they did not collect, monitor, or report such information.
Imagine that comfort to grieving families.
That was until, of course, May of 2023 when I asked the Inspector General of the U.S. Postal Service to look into this issue and, all of a sudden, the Postal Service responded by establishing an ad hoc centralized reporting mechanism for serious and deadly crashes involving postal freight contractors.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the ``Contract Trucking Safety and Compliance Report.'' Findings Summary
We found that the Postal Service's highway trucking contract safety controls, contract compliance, and screening oversight were not always effective. First, the Postal Service did not track contractor accidents and fatalities. Second, the Postal Service did not always develop appropriate safety requirements, provide adequate oversight, or enforce the terms and conditions of the contracts or freight auction Ordering Agreements.
Lastly, the Postal Service's screening processes did not always include a contract trucker's driving history. These collective deficiencies hindered visibility into safety performance and could compromise the safety and security of the mail and motorists. Finding #1: The Postal Service Does Not track trucking accidents and fatalities by contractors
The Postal Service did not tract trucking contractor accidents and fatalities and therefore, we could not determine the total number of occurrences. We analyzed incident data between October 2018 and December 2022 tracked on the DOT's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) website to help assess Postal Service contract trucker safety performance. This list does not contain all contractors utilized by the Postal Service as FMCSA does not track company safety data separately. However, we were able to identify at least 373 accidents resulting in 89 fatalities that were directly related to 43 on-duty contractors servicing Postal Service truck contracts. These 43 contractors were associated with Postal Service contracts totaling about $1.34 bi11ion between October 2018 and December 2022. We determined that the Postal Service had not terminated any contracts with trucking companies involved in accidents or fatalities prior to March 2023.
The Postal Service was unable to provide statistics and information on incidents (e.g., frequency, location, time, or involved parties) as it did not monitor FMCSA or have a system for recording or tracking related contractor data. However, when accidents or fatalities occur on trucking routes contracted with the Postal Service, contractors are required to report incident data to Postal Service contracting personnel. As stated earlier, Postal Service policy also requires AOs to report accident information to the Postal Inspection Service. Despite these reporting requirements, there is no centralized collection of information concerning these incidents. Postal Service officials acknowledged the lack of such a system, noting that tracking this data was not previously required by Postal Service policy or procedures.
The Postal Service has recently started to track this information. In March 2023, the Vice President, Transportation Strategy, stated that all traffic accidents involving contract trucking drivers be reported directly to him and the appropriate CO. This directive; however, was not recorded in written policy. In June 2023, the Postal Service stated they have an existing platform that could be used for storing contract trucking safety data. However, as of November 2023, the Postal Service has not created corresponding policies governing the use of this system (including related roles, responsibilities, and procedures) to record contract trucking safety data.
The Postal Service is however, taking other actions to monitor, assess, and potentially act on contractor safety data. First, it hired outside experts to review changes in the suppliers' safety ratings, create a list of suppliers to avoid, and determine suppliers' insurance coverage risk. Second, it is working to establish new contract trucking processes and procedures to improve the quality of contractors, including the removal of contractors with a conditional safety rating. Collectively, these actions would better inform the Postal Service when making decisions to either (a) choose a contractor based on their safety performance or (b) take appropriate termination or other corrective actions in instances of poor safety performance.
However even with these actions, the lack of a finalized method and established policies to track and monitor contractor accident and fatality data in the existing safety database limits the Postal Service's visibility into contractor safety performance. This deficiency could allow unsafe drivers to transport mail and put other motorists at risk.
Recommendation #1:
We recommend the Vice President, Transportation Strategy, finalize the method for tracking contractor accident and fatality data and establish corresponding written policies and procedures, including related roles and responsibilities.
Finding #2: Lack of Subcontractor and Team Driver Oversight
The Postal Service lacked requirements and clear policies or did not always enforce the terms and conditions of the contracts or freight auction Ordering Agreements to promote safe highway trucking practices. We found the following deficiencies:
Lack of Visibility in Subcontractor Use. The Postal Service did not always know who was authorized to transport the mail on its behalf. Freight auction brokers were not required to obtain prior written approval or inform the Postal Service of the specific contractors being utilized. Instead, the Postal Service relied on the broker to complete subcontractor authorization and vet the subcontractor, but those results are not required to be reported to the Postal Service. The onus is on the broker to ensure the subcontractor is in compliance with Postal Service policies.
Specific to HCR contracts, per the procurement handbook, contractors should specify their intent to subcontract route operations during contract award and disclose any subsequent subcontractor additions. Further, if a contractor wants to use additional subcontractors, Postal Service policy states this is an exceptional action and should be approved only when the contractor can offer sufficient reasons for the change. HCR contract terms and conditions also require the contractor to fully disclose subcontractor relationships as part of its proposal.
However, of the 15 COs and AOs interviewed, 14 (93 percent) did not know when HeR contractors utilized a subcontractor. Furthermore, HCR contractors must obtain prior written approval from the CO to employ subcontractors. However, six of the seven COs we interviewed were not aware of this requirement and therefore did not have the required documentation. Instead, the Postal Service relied on the HCR contractor to determine when to use a subcontractor and to ensure the subcontractor adhered to the terms and conditions including safety requirements. Using subcontractors without the prior written approval of the CO is a major irregularity for which the contractor may be terminated without notice or warning. However, while the SPs and Ps require approval from the CO before subcontracting, it does not state that approval needs to be written.
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Mr. CONNOLLY. As the USPS OIG stated in a report released this past March, while it is a welcome step, the Postal Service still does not have a single written policy requiring the tracking of trucking contractor accidents and fatalities.
The OIG's number one recommendation was that the Postal Service fix this serious safety oversight immediately, and that is what we are doing today.
Our legislation would codify the number one recommendation of the OIG, to begin to improve USPS freight trucking safety and provide accountability.
This bill will maintain an internal database, and I hope it will lead to reforms by the Postal Service and save lives.
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Mr. CONNOLLY. I think that is a fair conclusion.
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Mr. CONNOLLY. I think, again, that is a fair conclusion, Mr. Raskin.
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Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I say to Mr. Raskin, what is so troubling is these are 100 percent preventable tragedies. Not one of these lives had to be lost but for the callousness and lack of regard at the Postal Service in vetting freight contractors.
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