The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has awarded more than $76 million in grants to states and educational institutions to enhance commercial motor vehicle 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.
“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,” FMCSA Deputy Administrator Meera Joshi said in a statement.

The latest round of awards in total include $45.2 million in High Priority grants, $29 million in Commercial Driver’s License Program Implementation grants and $2 million in Commercial Motor Vehicle Operator Safety Training grants.

The High Priority grants are to enhance states’ commercial motor vehicle safety efforts, as well as advance technological capabilities within states.

The Commercial Driver’s License Program Implementation grants are to enhance efforts by states to improve the national commercial driver license program. The Commercial Driver’s License Program Implementation grant program provides financial assistance to states to achieve compliance with FMCSA regulations concerning driver’s license standards and programs.

So far this fiscal year, the states with the largest grant awards included:

1. $2 million each to the Washington State Highway Department of Transportation, South Dakota DOT, New York State DOT and Michigan State DOT.
2. $1.7 million to the Oklahoma DOT and Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles.
3. $1.5 million to the California Highway Patrol, Wyoming Highway Patrol and Nevada Highway Patrol Division.
4. $1.3 million to Indiana State Police.
5. $1.2 million to the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Indiana DOT.
6. $1.1 million to the Maryland Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.
7. $1 million to the Delaware DOT.

In addition to the grants noted above, in May/April 2021, FMCSA awarded more than $304 million in Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program 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.