Teamsters Say Regulators Used Flawed Analysis in Their Zeal to Satisfy Trucking Industry
The Bush administration's reinstated hours-of-service rule meets the economic needs of the trucking industry but not the health and safety needs of truck
drivers, a Teamster official told the Senate surface transportation subcommittee on Wednesday.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued an
interim final rule last week. The rule, which was twice thrown out by the
court, allows truck drivers to work as many as 84 hours a week.
"The FMCSA is more concerned about the economic viability of the
trucking industry than about the safety and health of the drivers in this
rulemaking," said LaMont Byrd, Teamsters director of safety and health.
The rule is almost identical to the industry's 2003 proposal, Byrd
said.
Byrd said the FMCSA cherry-picked from studies supporting its position
that an 11-hour driving limit did not result in more fatal crashes than the
previous limit of 10 hours.
The Teamsters reviewed the information provided by FMCSA and found that
it does not support the agency's claim.
Byrd said FMCSA acknowledged in the past that the risk of a crash
doubles from the 8th hour to the 9th hour of driving, and doubles again
from the 10th to the 11th hour.
"The Bush administration doesn't care if unsafe Mexican trucks or
exhausted truck drivers endanger everyone traveling on our highways," said
Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa.
"The Bush administration could have objectively reviewed the scientific
literature," Hoffa said. "It could have conducted studies to answer any
open questions. It could have talked to truck drivers and safety advocates
and other highway users. But it did none of those things.
"All the Bush administration did was ask the trucking industry for
marching orders," Hoffa said.
Background
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) first
promulgated the hours-of-service rule increasing the number of hours
truckers can drive in 2003. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
struck down the rule in 2004, but Congress reinstated it as part of the
Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2004.
FMCSA issued a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in January 2005,
proposing a rule that was little changed from the 2003 rule that had been
struck down.
On July 24, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for
the second time threw out the rule that increased driving time to 11 hours
from 10 hours and allowed drivers to go back to work after being off duty
for only 34 hours.
In the 39-page opinion, Judge Merrick Garland called the rule
"arbitrary and capricious."
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters was a party in the case,
joining Public Citizen and the Owner-Operator Independent Driver's
Association
The deadline for the court's July decision to go into effect was Sept.
14. But legal challenges pushed that deadline back. FMCSA issued the
interim final rule on Dec. 11.
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