ATA Asks Delay of HOS Changes Until Court Appeal Is Resolved

This story appears in the Feb. 4 print edition of Transport Topics.

American Trucking Associations has asked the federal government to delay implementing changes to the hours-of-service regulations until three months after the group’s pending legal challenge ends.

A delay, ATA said, would avoid confusion and potentially unnecessary law enforcement training should the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturn or change the rule.

“We recognize that parties to the pending litigation will differ on what the likely outcome will be, but the undeniable reality is that there is genuine uncertainty until the [appeals court] resolves the challenges,” ATA President Bill Graves wrote Jan. 25 in a letter to Anne Ferro, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

“A delay of enforcement until three months after the court issues its decision will avoid the significant potential waste of moving forward while that uncertainty persists,” Graves wrote.

The HOS changes restrict how drivers can use the optional 34-hour restart to reset their weekly driving limits of 60 hours in seven days, or 70 hours in eight days. Drivers will be able to use it only once every seven days, and it must include two periods from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.

The new regulation also adds a requirement that drivers take a half-hour rest break before driving more than eight hours.

The changes are scheduled to take effect July 1, but the appeals court will hear arguments March 15 from ATA, which argues that the rule is now too restrictive and overestimates the role of fatigue in crashes.

Graves wrote in his letter that he expects the court to issue its decision in mid-May or early June, but the court has not committed to a timeframe.

FMCSA spokesman Duane DeBruyne confirmed that the agency had received the letter and is reviewing it.

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), the new chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told Transport Topics in an interview that he sides with the trucking group and hopes the court will, too.

“I hope that they come down on the right side, and that’s to have the administration not implement what they want to, because I think that would be very, very damaging to the industry,” said Shuster, who took the helm of the committee Jan. 3, at the start of the 113th Congress.

Shuster praised the trucking industry’s “stellar safety record” and said, while it may not be perfect, “the only way to make it perfect would be to say ‘no trucks.’ ”

ATA said trucking companies and law enforcement agencies plan to begin training for the new rule three months before it takes effect. FMCSA has told states it will deliver its own training materials between April and June.

If the court changes the rule, carriers and law enforcement would need a similar amount of time to prepare to meet the new standard, ATA argued.

“We’re waiting to see whether the agency will cooperate and agree with us that there’s no point in industry and enforcement folks spending money and effort training for a rule that might change,” Rich Pianka, the federation’s deputy chief counsel, told TT.

But if FMCSA disagrees, ATA will “evaluate our choices,” including going through the court to force a delay, Pianka said.

Members of one of the subcommittees of Shuster’s panel singled out hours-of-service regulations as a priority in its work over the next two years.

In an oversight plan released Jan. 23, the subcommittee on highways said it “will maintain close oversight of the rulemaking process to ensure it furthers FMCSA’s primary mission of safety, while ensuring the efficient movement of freight throughout the U.S. economy.”

The hours-of-service changes also face a challenge from interest groups led by Public Citizen. They have argued in court briefs that FMCSA was negligent in its duty to protect the public when it didn’t cut truckers’ driving limits. Since they’re challenging the same rule, the court combined their case with ATA’s.

Scott Nelson, an attorney for Public Citizen, said his group has not taken a position on ATA’s delay request. Neither has Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a group working with Public Citizen on the case, said Henry Jasny, general counsel for the advocates group.

Managing Editor Neil Abt contributed to this story.