FMCSA Complaint Center Adds Broker and Identity Theft Reporting
FMCSA has relaunched its old consumer complaint database as the FMCSA Complaint Center. Here is who can be reported and what changed for drivers.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has replaced its National Consumer Complaint Database with a rebuilt online portal called the FMCSA Complaint Center. The agency announced the change in a Nov. 6 news release, according to CDLLife, and called the new system “enhanced.”
The portal lets anyone report suspected violations of federal motor carrier safety rules and hazardous materials regulations. For the first time, it has dedicated categories for property brokers, entry-level driver training providers, intermodal equipment providers, and registration fraud and identity theft.
Who can be reported through the portal
Complaints can be filed against a long list of businesses and service providers in trucking and moving. According to the agency’s list, they include:
- Moving companies and brokers
- Truck and bus companies
- Drug and alcohol service agents
- Electronic logging device (ELD) providers
- Property brokers
- Entry-level driver training (ELDT) providers
- Hazardous material transportation
- Cargo tank facilities
- Intermodal equipment providers, the companies that supply chassis and containers moved by truck
- Motorist safety concerns
- Registration misrepresentation and identity theft
What changed from the old database
The old system was built around household goods moves and carried the word “consumer” in its name. FMCSA has dropped that framing. The platform now refers to the “general public,” which the agency said better describes the range of people who file complaints, from shippers to drivers to other motorists.
Medical review officers and substance abuse professionals, who previously had their own category, now sit inside a new grouping called Drug and Alcohol Service Agents. Both roles are part of the drug and alcohol testing process for commercial drivers.
The agency also said it redesigned the website and the complaint form and updated the tool used to search past complaints, with the goal of making the system easier to use.
Why it matters for drivers and small carriers
Carriers whose registration has been misused by someone else now have a category built for that case. The registration fraud and identity theft option gives them a direct route to report it to federal regulators, alongside the more familiar safety complaints.
The property broker category matters for owner-operators who haul through load boards and deal with brokers they believe are breaking federal rules. Before this release, brokers of household goods moves had a place in the system, while property brokers, the ones who arrange freight loads, did not have their own category.
The ELDT category covers the schools and trainers listed in the Training Provider Registry, the federal list of driver training providers. Students who believe a school did not deliver the required training now have a specific place to file.
ELD providers stay on the list as well. Drivers who run into problems with a device or its vendor can report them through the same portal.
How to file a complaint
Complaints can be submitted online at complaint.fmcsa.dot.gov. FMCSA also takes them by phone at 1-888-DOT-SAFT (1-888-368-7238), Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time.
The agency did not say how many complaints the old database received or how quickly it plans to act on reports filed through the new system.
Source: CDLLife
