WASHINGTON -- Anne Ferro has moved into the drivers seat at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the agency responsible for overseeing critical motorcoach and trucking industry safety issues, some of which have being lingering since the agencys creation 10 years ago.

Ferros confirmation last month by the U.S. Senate hit a few bumps in the road. She was strongly opposed by the Teamsters Union and the safety advocacy community.

At the same time, she had broad support from the national safety community, groups she will be regulating, and politicians from her home state of Maryland, who cited her record as an effective chief of the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration before she was named president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, her most recent position.

Some see Ferro's experience as a motor vehicle administrator and a trucking representative as providing her with a strong and valuable background. She has knowledge of key safety components and she understands the industry part. It is not often you get both in a safety administrator.

Ferro is the fourth full-fledged FMCSA chief since the agency was created on Jan. 1, 2000. She takes the helm at a time when the agency has a very full agenda.

It largely will be Ferros responsibility to oversee implementation of the Motorcoach Safety Action Plan unveiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation last month.

In the trucking sector, the agency has agreed to revamp the hours-of-service rules for long-haul drivers - perhaps the thorniest issue the agency will have to deal with.

Additionally, the long-delayed final rule that will likely require electronic onboard recorders for some truck and bus operators has been waiting to go to the White House for approval. It is expected to be published early next year.

The biggest regulatory item already slated to come out of FMCSA next year will be a strategic change in the way the agency enforces its safety rules. For years, the agency's enforcement regime was built around the compliance review, a detailed analysis of a carriers safety performance and management plan that requires an on-site visit by an inspector.

That process is thorough but takes a lot of time and resources and touches only a small number of carriers. For several years now the agency has been working on a new approach, called Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010.

Under CSA 2010, fitness ratings will be based on performance information such as traffic, hours-of-service or license violations; improper maintenance, or a pattern of frequent accidents. It is a major undertaking.

FMCSA also is considering tougher requirements for new entrants to the industry. A key question is whether or not the agency should require a proficiency exam as part of New Entrant Safety Assurance Process.

In her confirmation hearing, Ferro brought up a perspective that is not traditionally a part of such hearings: the influence of the economics of the business on safety.

It has been difficult to improve safety in a multi-sector industry "where segments of it have such low barriers to entry that competition for business is sometimes characterized as a race to the bottom," she said at start of her confirmation process.

"Whoever leads this agency must foster frank discussions about the fundamentals in the freight supply chain and motorcoach industries that encourage participants to push the limits and put the driving public and other commercial drivers at risk," she said.

"Uncompensated time, compensation by the mile or load, professional drivers classified as laborers -- these are all aspects of a supply-chain model that rewards squeezing transportation costs out of the equation; factors that shift the cost onto the driving public and professional driver."

Such issues do not come under FMCSA's regulatory umbrella, but Ferro sees a leadership role for the administrator.

"The administrator must take the lead in raising questions and opening up the discussion if we are to realize a commercial vehicle industry where the safest drivers and safest motor carriers are the most competitive, not the other way around."