§31108 Motor Carrier Research and Technology Program

Summary

The Secretary of Transportation must set up and run a motor carrier and motor coach research and technology program with a multi-year plan that does not duplicate other DOT work. The program can study why commercial vehicle crashes happen and how to make them less harmful. It can support new safety and efficiency technologies, better tools for roadside inspections, and safer handling of hazardous materials. The Secretary can test and help develop inventions or patented items, use program money for training safety staff (like accident reconstruction and finding drugs or stolen cargo), and must use funds to make and promote useful research results. The work can be done alone, with other federal groups and labs, or by grants, contracts, or agreements with states, colleges, companies, nonprofits, foreign governments, or private people. To encourage new solutions, the Secretary may do shared-cost research and development with nonfederal partners and federal labs. The Secretary may use cooperative research and development agreements (as defined in section 12 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3710a)). The Federal share of costs under those agreements generally must not exceed 50 percent, unless there is a big public benefit and a higher share is allowed. Costs that nonfederal partners directly pay count toward their share. Use and licensing of technology from these agreements follow the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.).