FMCSA “virtual” trucking inspections began under Trump, not Biden

Federal motor carrier regulators have moved to restore in-person components of trucking company investigations after years of pandemic-era procedures allowed investigators to conduct certain reviews remotely — but federal records contradict a recent report attributing the policy’s creation to the Biden administration.

The Daily Wire reported Wednesday that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in March scrapped what it characterized as a Biden administration policy directing investigators to conduct “virtual” checks of trucking companies rather than visit their places of business.

The report said the policy was instituted in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic began and continued until the Trump administration reversed it this year. President Joe Biden, however, did not take office until Jan. 20, 2021.

FMCSA records show the agency expanded remote compliance reviews in the spring of 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first administration.

On May 19, 2020, FMCSA issued guidance stating that it would use available technology to conduct motor carrier compliance reviews during the COVID-19 public health emergency to reduce exposure risks for carriers and safety investigators.

The agency said investigators could obtain records electronically and communicate with carrier officials through email, telephone and video calls. FMCSA also said it could assign a carrier a safety rating following a compliance review even when no onsite review activities occurred.

“FMCSA has determined that because safety investigators are able to follow all of the procedures in 49 CFR part 385 without physically visiting the motor carrier’s business premise, compliance reviews that do not include an ‘on-site’ component will limit exposure risk to COVID-19, consistent with current regulations, without compromising FMCSA’s safety mission,” the agency said at the time.

The May 2020 guidance took effect immediately and was originally supposed to remain in effect until the presidentially declared COVID-19 national emergency was revoked.

FMCSA subsequently issued internal guidance on May 22, 2020, allowing investigators to conduct remote focused investigations and expanded the procedures in December 2020 to allow remote onsite comprehensive investigations, according to a later FMCSA study of its carrier intervention program.

Remote investigations surged during COVID FMCSA data show how dramatically the agency’s investigative practices changed during the pandemic. The agency and its state partners conducted 1,013 offsite investigations in fiscal year 2019.

That figure jumped nearly fivefold to 5,058 in FY2020 and remained elevated at 4,821 in FY2021, according to FMCSA’s Carrier Intervention Effectiveness Model. At the same time, onsite comprehensive investigations fell from 5,494 in FY2019 to 2,908 in FY2020 and 2,064 in FY2021.

FMCSA later acknowledged that COVID disrupted its ability to conduct onsite investigations because those reviews required investigators to visit carriers’ principal places of business. The Biden administration continued aspects of the remote approach after taking office.

In a certification policy effective June 1, 2022, FMCSA said that during COVID it had waived requirements that comprehensive investigations be conducted onsite and allowed investigators to maintain certification through offsite investigations and by tracking the regulatory “parts investigated.”

FMCSA said it was incorporating lessons learned during the pandemic into its certification policies, including allowing all regulatory parts used to maintain an investigator’s certification to be investigated offsite.

On May 19, 2020, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued guidance stating that it would use available technology to conduct motor carrier compliance reviews during the COVID-19 public health emergency to reduce exposure risks for carriers and safety investigators.

(Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves) March memo reportedly restores physical presence The Daily Wire said it based its report on an internal March 2026 FMCSA memorandum from Philip W. Thomas, the agency’s deputy associate administrator for safety.

According to the report, Thomas said remote procedures can “inhibit the ability to fully assess the motor carrier’s compliance and safety measures” and reduce the effectiveness of onsite investigations.

“Now that the public health emergency has ended, FMCSA is reinstating its pre-pandemic standard of conducting investigations with a meaningful physical presence at the motor carrier’s PPOB [principal place of business] per PPOB policy,” Thomas wrote, according to the memo quoted by The Daily Wire.

The directive reportedly says onsite investigations should involve substantive engagement with carriers rather than brief visits or drive-bys and calls for investigators to conduct in-person questioning with company officials. The Daily Wire reported that investigators could still close investigations virtually in certain extenuating