4 GOP lawmakers say they will 'intervene' if FMCSA changes HOS rules

Rep. John Mica (pictured here) and three other Republican lawmakers have told President Barack Obama they will intervene if the current Hours of Service rules are changed.

By LYNDON FINNEY
The Trucker Staff

9/27/2011

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and three other Republican Congressman have called on the Obama administration to keep the current Hours of Service rules in place, issuing a pledge to intervene if changes are made when the new Final Rule is released.

The four said they would “aggressively oversee any attempt by the U.S. Department of Transportation to impose new regulatory burdens on the trucking industry by making changes” to the current rules. A committee spokesman said  the panel would watch developments closely, and consider all possible courses of action should the rule changes as proposed move forward.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has said it hoped to have the Final Rule issued by the end of October.

Trucking industry stakeholders have expressed the most concern about three aspects of the proposed HOS rulemaking that was first issued last December, including:

• A stated preference by FMCSA to limit the number of driving hours to 10 within a 24-hour period instead of the current11.

• The requirement that a 34-hour restart must include two periods between 12 midnight and 6 a.m. and that a 34-hour restart could be used only one time in a seven-day period.

• A requirement that a driver take at least a 30-minute break after being on duty for seven hours. The driver would be required to rest for a total of one hour within the 14- or-16-hour driving window, effectively reducing the on-duty time each day from 14 to 13. The proposed rule does allow most drivers to extend the driving window to 16 hours twice a week.

“If finalized, the proposed changes would have a substantial negative impact on the productivity of the $600 billion trucking industry and will quickly result in a drag on the staggering U.S. economy,” the four said in a letter dated Sept. 23 to President Barack Obama with a copy sent to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

The letter was signed by Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; Rep. John J. Duncan, R-Tenn., chairman of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit; Bill Shuster, R-Penn., chairman of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, and Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who is also chairman of the House Small Business Committee.

The four told the president that to this point they had not seen any evidence that the current Hours of Service rules, essentially in place since 2004 with minor revisions following court rulings, were unsafe and needed revision.

“In fact, quite the opposite is true,” the Congressmen wrote. “Since implementation of the current rules, there has been a reduction in severe and fatal crashes involving large trucks, even as truck mileage has increased by almost 10 billion miles.”

The current rules are having a positive impact in highway safety, the letter said.

“We are very concerned the proposed changes will result in additional trucks and drivers on the road to deliver the same amount of freight, adding to final product costs and increasing congestion on our overburdened highways,” the Congressmen said. “In our enormous, consumer-driven economy, the last thing our government should be doing is artificially increasing the costs of almost every consumer good with unneeded regulation.”

The proposed HOS rule was included on the Obama administration’s list of Proposed Regulations from Executive Agencies with Cost Estimates of $1 Billion or More.

Under federal law, the FMCSA is not allowed to comment on any matters pertaining to a proposed rulemaking.

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