Drive on

For the first time in two de­cades, the industry can now move forward without im­mediate worry over pending changes to hours-of-service (HOS) regulations. That is because the final (at least it is hoped to be) battle of HOS was won by the Federal Mo­tor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) last month when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld nearly all of the HOS rules that went into effect on July 1 of this year.

The only part of the regulation struck down by the court was the mandated 30-minute break for “short-haul” driv­ers. As a result of that, FMCSA almost immediately stopped enforcement of that provision for drivers operat­ing within 100 air-miles of their nor­mal work reporting location and those non-CDL drivers operating within 150 air-miles of their reporting location. The court rejected all of the arguments raised by Public Citizen and other safety groups, which claimed that the rule did not go far enough to restrict drive time, and most of the arguments raised by the American Trucking Assns. (ATA) as well. ATA did successfully lobby for the change to the short-haul restriction.

Judge Janice Rogers Brown, who filed the opinion for the court, wrote that “… we conclude that what remains of the 2003 [HOS] final rule after two remands and three rulemakings are highly technical points best left to the agency. We therefore generally affirm the rule and vacate only the agency’s application of the 30-minute break to short-haul drivers …With one small exception, our decision today brings to an end much of the permanent warfare surrounding the HOS rules. Though FMCSA won the day not on the strengths of its rulemaking prowess, but through an artless war of attrition, the controversies of this round are ended.”

Public Citizen, Advocates for High­way and Auto Safety, and the Truck Safety Coalition argued that the 11-hour drive time created driver fa­tigue, which put the public at risk.

“Today, the American public is less safe because this dangerous rule puts the economic profit of the trucking industry ahead of public safety,” said Henry Jasny, vice president & general counsel of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “The statutory mission of [FMCSA] is to make safety its highest priority, but the bureaucracy ignored this mandate. Even though record numbers of truck drivers admit to fall­ing asleep behind the wheel and being tired when driving long shifts, FMCSA chose to keep in place the industry-supported features of the rule that al­low truckers to drive up to 11 straight hours at a time, instead of 10 hours, and work and drive up to 80 hours or more each week.”

Other safety groups also expressed outrage at the decision, including Par­ents Against Tired Truckers, which is part of the Truck Safety Coalition. “I am deeply saddened by this decision, which will lead to more deaths and injuries on the road,” said Daphne Izer, founder of the group. “Ever since my son Jeff was killed by a trucker who fell asleep behind the wheel, I have been fighting to change this industry culture of ignor­ing the deadly consequences of fatigued driving and truck crash fatalities.

“Today was a tremendous setback for all of us,” she continued, “particu­larly family members, who have been advocating for safer working condi­tions for truck drivers and safer driv­ing conditions for all motorists.”

According to ATA, the court agreed that FMCSA’s justification for the rule had serious flaws, but left most of the rule, including the 34-hour restart pro­vision, intact.

“While we are disappointed the court chose to give unlimited defer­ence to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s agenda-driv­ing rulemaking, the striking down of the short-haul break provision is an important victory,” said Dave Osiecki, ATA senior vice president of policy and regulatory affairs.

“The court recognized on numer­ous occasions the shortcomings of the agency’s deliberations, so despite upholding most of the rule, we hope this opinion will serve as a warning to FMCSA not to rely on similarly unsubstantiated rulemakings in the future,” Osiecki added. “One thing this rulemaking makes clear is that fa­tigue is a small problem when viewed through a crash causation lens. ATA hopes FMCSA will work with the trucking industry to address more pressing safety and driver behavior issues, including those that can be di­rectly affected through proven traffic enforcement activities.”

“The ruling recognizes the sensible data-driven approach that was taken in crafting this important regulation to increase safety and reduce driver fa­tigue, a leading factor in truck crashes,” FMCSA said in a prepared statement. “The ruling also provides added cer­tainty for all affected moving forward. [We are] reviewing the court’s opinion and will soon take additional action, as needed, for its full implementation.”

Following the decision, industry groups quickly turned their focus to other “more pressing safety and driver behavior issues,” in the words of Osiecki.

Sean McNally, ATA’s vice president of communications, told Fleet Owner that some of those more pressing is­sues include the use of electronic on­board recorders, driver fatigue manage­ment, and aggressive driving by motor­ists around large trucks.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn. (OOIDA) is shifting its attention to driver training.

“As far as HOS, we have long believed that drivers need flexibility to do their jobs safely. That hasn’t changed. But the court’s decision has put the issue to bed for now,” said Todd Spencer, execu­tive vice president. “That being said, hopefully we can now move on to ad­dressing the biggest safety gap in the trucking industry and that’s the lack of basic training standards for new drivers.”

He added that OOIDA has launched a campaign dubbed Truckers for Safety to bring attention to driver training issues.

“Better trained drivers mean safer drivers,” Spencer explained. “An expe­rienced career trucker is the type that people want to share the road with, and training should be the biggest focus of highway safety efforts.”