The American Moving & Storage Association (AMSA) is reacting cautiously to FMCSA's final hours-of-service (HOS) rules, saying that moving companies could be adversely affected by reduced on-duty time.
"Overall, these rules are a lot better than what was proposed two years ago," AMSA president Joe Harrison told Fleet Owner.
"The thing we have to look at is the reduction of on-duty time from 15 to 14 hours," he said. "It doesn't seem like a lot, but in our industry, we spend a lot more time loading and unloading than we do behind the wheel."
Harrison said that it would take time to completely analyze the new rules before AMSA can truly determine the full affect they'll have on moving companies.
"It appears to me on the surface that these rules represent a more reasonable approach to HOS reform than what was proposed before," Harrison said. "Though any change to on-duty time is something we have to pay close attention to, on the whole, we can probably live with these new rules."