Trucking industry unhappy with proposed drive time rules

Federal transportation officials say proposed new hours-of-service rules for commercial truck drivers are focused on safety, but a trucking industry association has harsh criticism for the proposal.

On Dec. 23, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued proposed new hours-of-service rules that would require commercial truck drivers to complete all driving within a 14-hour workday, and complete all on-duty work-related activities within 13 hours to allow for at least a one hour break. Also, a "34-hour restart" provision — allowing drivers to restart the clock on their weekly 60 or 70 hours by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off-duty — was revised so that the period would have to include two consecutive off-duty periods from midnight to 6 a.m., and drivers would be allowed to use this restart only once during a seven-day period.

"A fatigued driver has no place behind the wheel of a large commercial truck," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in the statement. "We are committed to an hours-of-service rule that will help create an environment where commercial truck drivers are rested, alert and focused on safety while on the job."

Commercial truck drivers who violate the rule could pay up to $2,750 for each offense, and trucking companies that allow their drivers to violate the rules would face penalties of up to $11,000 for each offense.

Other provisions include the option of extending a driver’s daily shift to 16 hours twice a week to allow for loading and unloading at terminals or ports, and allowing drivers to count some time spent parked in their trucks toward off-duty hours.

But the American Trucking Associations is not happy with the proposal, saying the DOT “missed the mark in many ways” and that the proposal has nothing to do with driver safety.

In an ATA statement, Association President Bill Graves said the proposed rulemaking is “overly complex, chock full of unnecessary restrictions on professional truck drivers and, at its core, would substantially reduce trucking’s productivity.” He noted that trucking industry’s safety performance while operating under the hours of service rules in place since 2004 has resulted in a 33% decline in crash-related fatalities and that fatality and injury crash rates are at their lowest level since the USDOT began keeping records.

“When viewed against trucking’s sterling safety record,” Graves noted in the statement, “it’s plain that the Obama Administration’s willingness to break something that’s not broken likely has everything to do with politics and little or nothing to do with highway safety or driver health.”

The proposed rules come on top of CSA 2010 rulemaking recently issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) — a division of the DOT.

The FMCSA began in April to phase in the Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 (CSA 2010) with the goal of “reducing large truck and bus crashes, injuries and fatalities on our nation’s highways.” The effort, which began in May 2005, will use a new safety measurement system to monitor the more than 500,000 active commercial motor carriers — trucking companies, bus companies, etc. — and the about 7 million commercial drivers in the U.S.

As to the proposed new hours-of-service rules, the ATA also says they will be costly for an industry struggling to emerge from a freight recession that began in late 2006. Using figures from the FMCSA, the ATA noted that reducing driving time by one hour a day and altering the restart provision would cost the industry more than $2.2 billion annually.

“This proposal includes even more restrictions than what FMCSA previously considered” said Graves, and “as a result, we will be evaluating FMCSA’s proposed costs and benefits very carefully.”

DOT officials say the proposed rules are are “designed to prevent commercial vehicle-related crashes and fatalities by prescribing on-duty and rest periods for drivers,” and were developed through an open and public process.

"In January, we began this rulemaking process by hosting five public listening sessions with stakeholders across the country," FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro said in a statement. "This proposed rule provides another opportunity for the public to weigh in on a safety issue that impacts everyone on our roadways."