Trucking news: ATA moves to petition FMCSA on HOS ruling

Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 9/4/2007

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Late last week, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) submitted a petition to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA), in which it asked to retain the 11-hour daily driving limit and 34-hour restart provisions that are part of the truck driver Hours-of-Service (HOS) regulations. 

The reason for this petition stems from a July 24 decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia which stated that certain portions of the United States Government’s HOS rules and regulations are illegal. July’s ruling overturned the 11-hour daily driving limit and 34-hour restart provisions that have been in place since the current rules went into effect in October 2005. And it resets the HOS clock to 10 hours of maximum driving time each day.

The ATA says that this decision has the potential to make things more challenging for both carriers and shippers.

In a letter to FMCSA Administrator John Hill, ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said that along with requesting publication of an interim rule on the maximum 11-hour driving period and the 34-hour restart provision by September 14. The ATA petition also requests an “expedited notice of proposed rulemaking process to address the issues identified in the July 2007 court decision” 60 days after this notice and a final rule published within 180 days of the notice of proposed rulemaking’s publication.

The ATA’s petition also asks that the FMCSA publish the requested interim final rule by September 14 and within 60 days after that publish a proposed notice of rulemaking

Shortly after the July ruling, Graves wrote a letter to Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Graves, asking to push for a stay on the ruling, and he added that there is “no compelling reason” to eliminate the two provisions the court challenged.

At a press conference held at the National Press Club in Washington last month, Graves said that this ruling—“and other issues like the truck driver shortage and the whole issue of truck productivity—in a broad sense—impact our ability to have the capacity and the people and equipment to get the all the freight moved that needs to be moved.”

And the HOS ruling, said Graves, raises the possibility of removing one-ninth of a percent of a productive driving day, which the industry needs to be concerned about.

 In his letter to DOT Secretary Peters, Graves also cited how the DOT issued final truck-involved fatality figures for 2006—the first full year of the trucking industry operating under the new HOS rules—resulted in fatalities declining by 4.7%, which was the largest decline in 14 years. He added in the letter that if these rules are vacated in September it is likely that there will be “disruptions in the supply chain, our economy will suffer, and the highway safety implications become an unreasoned variable.”

But what needs to be remembered, added Graves, is that along with that additional hour of driving was a requirement for additional rest time—that dictated truck drivers sleep for one seven-to-eight-hour period out of their 10-hour off-duty/sleep time— was part of the rule.