Trucking-related provisions of House T-HUD bill welcomed by American Trucking Associations

In passing a Transportation and House and Urban Appropriations Development (THUD) appropriations bill yesterday, the United States House of Representatives received plaudits from the trucking sector for two provisions included in the bill’s language that the American Trucking Associations said “are critical for improving the safety and efficiency of the trucking industry.”

The bill passed by a slight 216-210 margin and now heads to the Senate, where it is expected to be approved, although industry stakeholders say it is likely to face a veto threat from the White House. All but 31 Republicans voted for it, and it was opposed by all but three Democrats. Also, it increases discretionary spending by $1.5 billion over current levels but is $9.7 billion less than the Obama administration had asked for.

One of the two ATA-supported provisions in the bill includes requiring the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to demonstrate the motor carrier hours-of-service restart restrictions that took effect in July 2013 actually set out to do what FMCSA said it intended to do in improving the health and safety of truck drivers.

And the other one focuses on a provision allowing motor carriers to use twin 33-foot trailers that ATA said would improve capacity and safety while not increasing truck weights, and, in turn, also cut down on the number of truck trips needed to move domestic freight, reduce emissions, and the industry’s exposure to crashes, too.

“By including language requiring a more robust study of the hours-of-service restart restrictions originally imposed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in July 2013, and a modest increase in the length of some truck combinations, the House has taken an important step in improving the safety of our highways, first and foremost, but also the efficiency of our highway system and the industry that moves nearly 70% of the nation’s goods,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves in a statement. “The House has shown tremendous leadership in passing this bill and putting forward these important provisions,” “and we now call upon the Senate to quickly pass a bill that follows that lead. Despite the ongoing misinformation campaign by critics of businesses in general and trucking in particular, these two provisions will make our highways safer and ensure our country’s economy is served by an efficient supply chain.”

The restart restrictions require truckers who maximize their weekly work hours must take at least two nights’ rest when their 24-hour body clock demands sleep the most—from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. This rest requirement allows drivers to restart the clock on their workweek by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off-duty. The final rule allows drivers to use the restart provision only once during a seven-day period. Last December, Congress suspended these two provisions of the current Hours-of-Service rules, pending completion of a commercial motor vehicle driver restart study commissioned by the FMCSA and conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Data collection began in March. It is supposed to be finished by Sept. 30, but officials from FMCSA say that it likely will not be made public before the end of the year.

According to the THUD bill passed by the House, its objective regarding the restart provisions is to “establish that commercial motor vehicles who operated under the restart provisions in effect between July 1, 2013, and the day before the date of enactment…demonstrated statistically significant improvement in all outcomes related to safety, operator fatigue, driver health, longevity, and work schedules in comparison to commercial motor vehicle operators who operated under the restart provisions in effect on June 30, 2013.”

Critics of the 34-hour restart rule that requires drivers to take two consecutive periods of 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. implemented in July 2013 prior to being suspended say that it pushes drivers into riskier daytime driving, with, the one-year suspension lifting the restriction on using the restart more than once every 168 hours or one week.

“The 34 hour restart [rule] is a drain on both the carrier community and the shipper one, ultimately, resulting in impacts to the end consumer,” said Jeff Brady, director of transportation for Harry & David, a multi-channel specialty retailer, in a previous interview. “Trucking impacts the entire economy and with the last several decades of no cohesive highway infrastructure plans; the increases in congestion, at critical times of the day none the less, is impacting capacity. Capacity in trucking, or lack thereof, creates higher costs to get capacity commitments from an ever shrinking carrier base.”

Twin 33-foot trailers provision: The trucking sector’s call for twin 33-foot trailers has been echoed many times, especially in recent years, supporting the myriad benefits the ATA cited it would bring along the lines of increased productivity and safety.

As previously reported, the trucking industry would like to see greater use of longer combination vehicles, specifically 33-foot twin trailers instead of the currently legal 28-foot “pups” that dot the major interstates right now.

No less an authority than FedEx Corp. Chairman Fred Smith said recently there is a “good chance” Congress would soon allow the 33-foot combinations that provide 18 percent greater productivity for trucking companies. They would be used mostly by LTL carriers such as FedEx Freight, which could gain greater flexibilities and efficiency in using the longer combination vehicles.