WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today announced that it has awarded more than $76 million in grants to states and educational institutions to enhance commercial motor vehicle (CMV) safety.  All 50 states, the District of Columbia, plus the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are slated to receive federal funds.

“At FMCSA and USDOT our mission is to ensure that all road users, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, reach their destination safely,” said FMCSA Deputy Administrator Meera Joshi.  “Together these grants represent the Administration’s commitment to supporting strong state and local partnerships to reach our national goal of reducing commercial vehicle-involved crashes and saving lives.”

In addition to these grants, USDOT is one of the leaders of the White House Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, where they are working to address truck driver retention issues.  In July, USDOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, and FMCSA’s Meera Joshi hosted a roundtable to discuss truck driver recruitment and retention. After the roundtable Secretary Buttigieg and Secretary Walsh wrote an Op-Ed detailing how truck drivers are essential workers and what USDOT is doing to support driver retention.

The FMCSA grant announced today include:

$45.2 million in High Priority (HP) grants to enhance states’ commercial motor vehicle safety efforts, as well as advance technological capabilities within states.  The High Priority (HP) grant program consists of HP-Commercial Motor Vehicle (HP-CMV) grants and HP-Innovative Technology Deployment (HP-ITD) grants.  HP-CMV grants are designed to provide financial assistance to state commercial vehicle safety efforts, while HP-ITD grants provide financial assistance to advance the technological capability and promote the deployment of intelligent transportation system applications for CMV operations.  A full list of this year’s HP grant recipients is available here.

$29 million in Commercial Driver’s License Program Implementation (CDLPI) grants to enhance efforts by states to improve the national commercial driver’s license (CDL) program.  The Commercial Driver’s License Program Implementation (CDLPI) grant program provides financial assistance to states to achieve compliance with FMCSA regulations concerning driver’s license standards and programs.  Additionally, the CDLPI grant program provides financial assistance to other entities capable of executing national projects that aid states in their compliance efforts, which will improve the national CDL program.  A full listing of this year’s CDLPI grant recipients is available here.

$2 million in Commercial Motor Vehicle Operator Safety Training (CMV-OST) grants to 21 educational institutions to help train veterans for jobs as commercial bus and truck drivers.  The Commercial Motor Vehicle Operator Safety Training grant program awards grants to a variety of educational institutions that provide commercial truck and bus driving training, including accredited public or private colleges, universities, vocational-technical schools, post-secondary educational institutions, truck driver training schools, associations, and state and local governments, including federally recognized Native American tribal governments.  A full listing of this year’s CMV-OST grant recipients is available here.

In addition to the grants noted above, in May/April 2021, FMCSA awarded more than $304 million in Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) grants supporting state and local law enforcement agencies to utilize approximately 12,000 enforcement personnel toward reducing the number and the severity of crashes and hazardous materials incidents involving commercial motor vehicles.  A full listing of Fiscal Year 2021 MCSAP grants is available here.

In total, nearly 60 percent of FMCSA’s funding is provided to states and local communities through grant funding – all intended to enhance commercial vehicle safety. 

To learn more about FMCSA grants, visit https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/mission/grants.

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