ATA Asks Appeals Court to Review FMCSA's HOS Final Rule
On February 14, 2012, the American Trucking Associations announced it filed a new lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s December 2011 final rule that makes the hours-of-service (HOS) regulations for commercial truck drivers more restrictive. ATA President and CEO Bill Graves states that the safety benefits of the HOS changes are outweighed by its costs, and that limited government and industry resources should instead focus on safety initiatives that will have a greater impact on highway safety. This filing at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia comes just weeks before the final rule takes effect on February 27, though a number of its provisions have a delayed compliance date of July 1, 2013.
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According to Graves, ATA supports:
EOBRs - FMCSA's move toward mandated electronic on-board recorders to ensure greater compliance with the current, effective HOS rules, and to facilitate better enforcement of those effective rules.
Speed limitations - A requirement for large trucks to be electronically speed limited; a return to a national maximum speed limit of 65 mph for all vehicles to avoid safety consequences of car-truck speed differentials; and greater deployment of automated speed and traffic enforcement technologies.
Active safe tech to prevent distracted driving - ATA will also continue to push for greater deployment of active safety technologies to change specific, unsafe driver behaviors and aid specific crash avoidance responses; as well as industry and government programs to address distracted and inattentive driving since that unsafe behavior is at or near the top of the list of crash causes for both commercial and non-commercial drivers.
(See ITT's Online Archives 12021323 for summary of FMCSA's interest in a supplemental proposed rule on EOBRs in light of a U.S. Appeals Court for the Seventh Circuit ruling that struck down a 2010 FMCSA final rule that established the technical requirements for EOBRs and imposed EOBR requirements on certain non-complying carriers, etc. As needed, the supplemental proposed rule would address driver harassment as well as the technical requirements for EOBRs.
See ITT's Online Archives 11122322 for summary of FMCSA's December 2011 HOS final rule that, among other things, limits the use of the 34-hour restart provision to once every 168 hours and requires that anyone using the 34-hour restart provision have as part of the restart two periods that include 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. It also includes a provision that allows truckers to drive if they have had a break of at least 30 minutes, at a time of their choosing, sometime within the previous 8 hours. The rule did not include a change to the current daily driving limit of 11 hours, or the 60- and 70-hour limits. In addition, the sleeper-berths rules did not change. This final rule will take effect on February 27, 2012, but compliance with a number of provisions is delayed until July 1, 2013.
See ITT’s Online Archives 11032520 for summary of the over 25,000 comments submitted on the HOS proposed rule, many of which were in opposition to the proposal.
See ITT's Online Archives 11112123 for summary of an ATA letter questioning whether legitimate reason exists to change current HOS rules.)