A court’s decision to let the current hours-of-service rules stand for just 90 more days supports the recommendations of safety groups determined to protect drivers and passengers alike on the nation’s highways.
Friday’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is the latest twist in a long-running case in which Public Citizen, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, and other groups are challenging the unsafe and unhealthy hours-of-service rule that the federal government first adopted in 2003.
The court struck down the 2003 regulation, then struck down a 2005 rule that mirrored the one the court had found untenable. That rule raised the consecutive driving limit from 10 hours to 11 hours and added a 34-hour restart provision that allows drivers to significantly increase both their weekly driving and on-duty hours. Studies show that fatigued drivers are more likely to crash. The last thing we need is more tired truckers on the roads.
When striking down the 2005 rule this past July, the court said that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) reliance on a new fatigue model without first providing notice and the opportunity for public comment was improper. The court also faulted the agency for the way it treated the risk increase associated with 11 straight hours of driving, as well as for failing to deal with the added cumulative fatigue the 34-hour restart rule would cause by allowing more hours of driving per week.
On Sept. 6, the American Trucking Associations asked the court to let the unsafe and unhealthy rules stay in effect for eight months to give the government time to rewrite them; FMCSA asked for a year. We opposed any delay but argued that if there was one, it should be no more than 90 days, which the court agreed with.
The agency should use the time to oversee the transition to pre-2003 driving limits rather than continuing to insist on an hours-of-service scheme that endangers truck drivers and motorists.
1 comment:
Safety is really in the hands of the driver. There are thousands of drivers out there who have driven more than a million miles without an accident. These are excellent drivers, and excellent citzens. Unfortunately many of our excellent citzen drivers in professional trucking are being replaced with riff raffs to fill seats vacated by people who find that they are no longer able to make a living commenserate with the sacrafices of over the road trucking. Better pay will allow for higher standards in hiring drivers, improve retention statistics, and make the roads safer.
Also, I believe the biggest factor in fatigue is time away from home.
Better pay will make it affordable for drivers to get home more frequently, and stay home longer.
For example I think that 4 days out with 3 days home would be ideal. I mean in a modern soceity 84 hours a week should be enough time devoted to work to earn a decent living.
Post a Comment