Debate over hours-of-service rules heats up

A new round of hearings focuses on what the proposed safety rules will cost and whether they will accomplish what they're intended to do.

By -- Logistics Management, 9/1/2000

The hours-of-service debate is going into additional rounds at the behest of U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater. The Department of Transportation has scheduled meetings with industry representatives to discuss the much-criticized rules revision proposed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The first of these roundtable discussions, which will be open to the public, is set for Sept. 25 in Chevy Chase, Md.

The DOT has also extended the comment period on the proposal to Dec. 15, the second extension authorized by the agency. The first comment period expired July 31 but was extended to Oct. 30 when it became clear the rules revision was generating an enormous amount of (largely negative) feedback from carriers, shippers, and consignees. By extending the comment period to mid-December, Slater is virtually ensuring the rules change will not be enacted this year. However, the DOT has the option of filing a notice of proposed rulemaking, enabling it to carry the proposal over to 2001.

Slater's scheduling of the 11th-hour meetings with industry representatives is seen as an attempt to forestall a pending Senate transportation bill that would eliminate funding for updating the hours-of-service rules. (The DOT has already held eight public hearings on the proposal.)

The current rules were first enacted in 1932 and revised in 1962. The proposed revision aims to improve motor-carrier safety by limiting the number of hours drivers can operate trucks and buses and by basing the rules on a 24-hour cycle. It would also create five categories of truck drivers, with different requirements for each.

The current hours-of-service rules permit drivers to operate big trucks and buses for 10 hours, then rest for eight, with total driving limited to 16 hours out of 24. The new rules would call for mandatory rest periods, including two consecutive days off per week.

The 2000 update proposed by the FMCSA, written without industry input, has drawn sharp opposition from motor carriers and drivers. Critics say the new rules are so restrictive that they will require 60,000 additional truck drivers to be added to the workforce at a time when the industry already has 80,000 vacancies. They also say the new rules would discourage driving from midnight to 6 a.m., requiring more trucks to hit the highways during peak rush-hour traffic. The end result of the rules change will be more traffic accidents and higher prices to transport goods, charge industry organizations such as the National Industrial Transportation League, the nation's largest shipper organization.

Gerald L. Detter, president and CEO of Con-Way Transportation Services, is among the sharpest critics of the proposal. "I think the DOT will do with this rule what the Fed has not been able to do with interest rates," he says. "It will slow down the economy."

"I don't think the present proposal is based on sound science," Detter continues. "The DOT rushed into this decision. It is proposing rules that aren't workable." Con-Way operates three regional motor carriers across the United States. Detter says that the rules, if imposed, would require fleets to add more trucks and more drivers to the highways to handle current amounts of commerce. "I can't figure out how adding more trucks to the highways will improve safety," he says. "Secretary Slater wants this rule as his legacy. The last thing he'll want is to be known as the guy who proposed this rule. But it will be the only thing he'll be remembered for."

Proponents of the rules have been outspoken as well. Last month, Rosalyn Millman, deputy administrator of the DOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Clyde Hart Jr., acting deputy administrator of the FMCSA, issued a joint statement titled "Let's Not Miss an Opportunity to Improve Safety on the Highways." In it, the two said "... [M]any trucking industry interests seem opposed to reform" and accused industry lobbyists of pressuring Congress to derail the rules change by stripping DOT of funding for the endeavor. "This is raw use of political power by specific trucking interests to stop progress," their statement read.

Forum for discussion

To help resolve these and other issues, Slater has announced that he will hold three roundtable discussions focusing on the proposal's economic impact, rest periods, and carrier exemptions. "The purpose of these meetings," he says, "will be to obtain information these groups may have so that we can incorporate it into our deliberations and thus continue our rulemaking process."

Those invited to appear at the sessions include truckers, highway safety advocates, insurers, and representatives from a number of industry organizations. Among them are the AFL-CIO, American Trucking Associations, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, Independent Truckers and Drivers Association, Intermodal Association of North America, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Motor Freight Carriers Association, National Association of Small Trucking Companies, National Industrial Transportation League, National Private Truck Council, National Sleep Foundation, National Tank Truck Association, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Parents Against Tired Truckers, and the Truckload Carriers Association.

Along with the Sept. 25 meeting, sessions have also been scheduled for Sept. 28 and Oct. 5 in Washington, D.C. For further information about these meetings, visit Logistics Magazine's home page at www.logisticsmgmt.com.