'98 Year in Review: Regulation — Hours of Service

The debate on hours of service, which became trucking’s top regulatory priority in 1998, may have taken a favorable turn for the industry.

Government officials are considering a plan to let concerned parties work out rules governing how much work truck drivers can do in given periods of time. Meanwhile, a pilot program to track how truckers follow those rules is foundering despite its apparent success.

After a year of prodding by the American Trucking Associations, the Federal Highway Administration announced it may allow industry, labor and safety groups and other affected parties to develop a proposal. The agency will continue working on federally-mandated revisions to the 65-year-old hours of service rules until it determines whether a negotiated policy is practical.

ATA President Walter B. McCormick Jr. advocated allowing interested parties to work with regulators to set new rules. “Agencies that have used regulatory negotiations have found that, when properly structured, a regulatory negotiation speeds consensus and adoption of rules,” Mr. McCormick said.

The federal agency is more than eight months behind a congressionally mandated schedule for issuing a draft and is expected to miss its March deadline for a final rule. FHWA says it is shooting for the end of 2000 to set the regulations (12-21, p. 1).

The question remains whether a negotiated policy would speed or impede formulation of rules. The agency must determine whether affected parties can reach a consensus on a proposal. If FHWA goes to a negotiated rulemaking, work on the traditional draft would stop until the process yields results.

Not everyone is optimistic about the potential of such talks.

Some in the trucking industry and government officials have wondered if the process would force a stalemate, or drag out an already lengthy and complex process. Highway safety advocate Joan Claybrook said she would oppose a negotiated rulemaking.

In coming months, the industry is expected to argue for rules that are flexible, cost effective, and based on available scientific data.

A major consideration is whether new hours-of-service regulations will help eliminate driver fatigue. The industry argues that the current rules force truckers to drive all hours of the night to make a timely load. This practice works against their body clocks and promotes fatique, industry officials say.

The ATA Foundation, working with the FHWA, has completed six studies that have explored fatigue in long-haul truck drivers; use of onboard technology to measure driver alertness; and the role that driving schedules and unloading and loading trucks have on fatigue (9-21, p. 1)

For the full story, see the Jan. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.