A bill introduced by House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AK) to postpone the enforcement of the sleeper berth exemption for the updated hours-of-service rule, effective Oct. 1 2005, has made little headway nearly two weeks after it was submitted on Sept. 29.
“A standalone bill like that can only come up for a vote if it’s agreed to by the leadership of both parties,” said Richard Henderson, director of government affairs with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) told FleetOwner. “Last week it wasn’t put on the suspension calendar. With each passing day and week after Oct. 1, when the updated hours-of-service rule went into effect, it becomes more problematic to change both the enforcement and effective date of the rule.”
CVSA on Oct. 6 submitted a letter to Congress stating that it opposes the bill because it will “cause additional confusion among both enforcement officers and industry drivers.” CVSA, which is an association of state, provincial and federal officials and federal officials charged with administering and enforcing motor carrier rules, added that an Oct. 3-4 survey it conducted with the 21 states that have already adopted the revised rule indicated that they are adopting a “soft enforcement” policy.
“Basically, that means that no citations are being issued for violations of the new sleeper berth regulation except for egregious violations,” stated CVSA.
The American Trucking Assns. (ATA) warned that those 21 states have the option of immediate enforcement of the revised HOS. For more information on this, go to www.truckline.com.
ATA was contacted but did not respond at press time.
