Anti-Truck Groups Ignore Safety Record of New HOS Rules; American Trucking Associations Seeks Additional Safety Regulation

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A petition that asks the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to reconsider some of the details of the truck drivers’ Hours of Service (HOS) rules is ill-advised and raises no new substantive safety issues.

A number of anti-truck groups and their allies yesterday asked the FMCSA to reconsider the HOS rules, which have been proven safe in both scientific research and in actual on-road operations over the last four years on American highways, where crash data shows the trucking industry is safer than it has ever been.

Whatever HOS rules are in force, their effectiveness will be diminished if drivers do not comply with them. That is why yesterday, as part of the trucking industry’s ongoing safety efforts, ATA President and CEO Bill Graves asked the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters to approve new regulations that will require the use of Electronic On-Board Recorders (EOBRs) for motor carriers with a history of failing to comply with Hours of Service rules. By automatically creating an electronic record of the vehicle’s travel, EOBRs improve compliance with Hours of Service rules.

“We believe that a new EOBR regulation will help to further improve the safety compliance posture of motor carriers, which could lead to further truck safety improvements in the years ahead,” Graves said in the letter. “I know we share this important goal.”

The current Hours of Service rules, which have been in effect since January 2004, have never, contrary to claims from Public Citizen and others, been overturned in court on substantive grounds related to their safety impact. Rather, prior legal rulings have been based on procedural problems. FMCSA has corrected those procedural errors and earlier this year, the D.C. Circuit rebuffed a Public Citizen substantive challenge to the 11- and 34-hour provisions as part of the agency’s Interim Final HOS Rule. The reconsideration petition filed yesterday raises no new substantive issues.

The current rules replaced decades-old rules and made them safer by shortening the drivers’ work day by an hour or more and increasing the drivers’ required daily rest period by 2 hours, or 25 percent. The rules also permit a restart of the weekly HOS “clock” if a driver remains off duty for 34 hours or more. The restart is intended to encourage drivers to take extended periods of off-duty rest time at home.

The current rules were designed to complement the human body’s 24-hour circadian rhythm, and while these rules have been in effect, large truck crash rates, injury rates and death rates have fallen to all-time lows. Scientific studies of safety records have shown the current rules are safe.

Anti-truck groups have made misleading statements about the HOS rules, such as the rules lengthen the work day, when they actually shorten it; and the rules allow trucking companies to coerce drivers to drive when fatigued, when this is illegal and has been since 1982.

FMCSA reissued the HOS rule on November 19, 2008. FMCSA has no deadline for ruling on the Public Citizen petition. The reconsideration petition, if rejected, would not delay the January 19, 2009, effective date of the HOS rule.

By letter yesterday, ATA urged Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle and Transportation Secretary Peters to approve regulations drafted by FMCSA to require electronic on-board recorders for motor carriers with a history of failing to comply with HOS rules. The EOBR rule is an important truck safety regulation that was developed over the last four years. It is significant because of its potential impact on HOS rule compliance by historically non-compliant motor carriers.

The American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences, and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States.

SOURCE American Trucking Associations