Monday, November 25, 2002
DOT 106-02
Contact: Dave Longo
Telephone: 202-366-0456
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta today announced that Joseph M. Clapp, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), will leave the U.S. Department of Transportation next month. President Bush appointed Clapp the first administrator of the FMCSA on Oct. 4, 2001.
"Joe
Clapp has been an outstanding member of our team at DOT. As the leader of the
FMCSA, he brought considerable private-sector experience to bear on a number of
key issues facing the industry at a critical time in our Nation's history, and I
am deeply grateful for his contributions,” Secretary Mineta said.
"I truly appreciate the service Joe has so generously given the
country, and while we will miss his counsel, I know he is looking forward to
resuming the retirement he was enjoying before his call to service.”
Secretary
Mineta also announced that Annette M. Sandberg, who has served as deputy
administrator of the Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration since Feb. 11, 2002, is FMCSA’s deputy administrator, effective
today.
“Annette
Sandberg brings vast experience and savvy to a job that will continue to be
challenging,” Secretary Mineta said. “The
leadership she demonstrated in NHTSA helped improve highway safety in this
country and now we are asking her to help reduce truck-related fatalities.”
Clapp
had retired in 1995 after serving as chairman of Roadway Services, Inc., Akron,
Ohio. Roadway Services was at the
time a $5 billion-firm in the transportation and logistics business operating
through subsidiary companies. These
companies employed more than 60,000 people at over 1,000 facilities worldwide.
Since his appointment at FMCSA, Clapp focused on meeting transportation safety requirements for implementing the truck and bus provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The Bush administration is committed to opening the U.S. southern border for Mexican truck and bus operations and ensuring that qualified Mexican-domiciled motor vehicles operate safely in the United States.
Under Clapp’s leadership in preparing for the border
opening, FMCSA met or exceeded 22 different safety requirements set out in the
Fiscal Year 2002 Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
These requirements included hiring,
training and placing 274 safety personnel along the border, establishing new
inspection facilities, and creating a strict safety regimen.
Regulations published while Clapp was administrator included important
rules specified in the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999.
Among them is a final rule that strengthened the licensing requirements and sanctions
in the commercial driver's license (CDL) program. Another rule established a new safety audit process for U.S.
and Canadian motor carriers entering the market after Jan. 1, 2003.
As the FMCSA administrator, Clapp emphasized that motor carrier managers
have a personal responsibility to operate with extraordinary regard for the
safety of those with whom they share the road.
He challenged FCMSA employees to see each of the thousands of carrier
contacts they make each year as an opportunity to bring about positive change so
that people and their loved ones “get home safely tonight.”
Sandberg was the chief of the Washington State Patrol for six years and is a nationally recognized expert on law enforcement and traffic safety. She spent more than 17 years in law enforcement, supervisory and administrative posts – some of which included responsibility for motor carrier safety– with the Washington State Patrol.
Sandberg has a law degree from the University of Puget Sound School of Law and earned an MBA from City University, Bellevue, WA, graduating magna cum laude.
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