ATA Files Suit Against FMCSA Over HOS Logs
This story appears in the Jan. 25 print edition of Transport Topics.
American Trucking Associations said last week it filed a lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to force the agency to issue an overdue regulation covering the documents and other materials fleets need to maintain to verify drivers’ logbooks.
“We have a tremendous amount of respect for the Department of Transportation and the work they do, but we had to show the department just how important the supporting documents issue is to our industry,” ATA President Bill Graves said in a statement. “We hope this lawsuit prompts a greater focus on the issue and that the department will be willing to work with us to get the regulation out within a reasonable time frame.”
In the lawsuit, filed Jan. 15 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, ATA asks the court to order FMCSA to issue a proposed rule within 60 days and a final rule six months later.
A spokeswoman for FMCSA told Transport Topics the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
In 1994, Congress ordered DOT to issue a rule spelling out what items — such as toll receipts, bills of lading and other paperwork — fleets needed to maintain to allow inspectors to verify the information in hours-of-service logs was accurate.
In 2006, FMCSA officials said they were close to issuing a final rule but in 2007, it was withdrawn. The agency cited a failure to properly account for the burden the regulation could have had on trucking companies for its decision to withdraw the rule.
Without a final rule, ATA said fleets are having a hard time deciding which documents to keep and which ones to discard.
“In order to comply, trucking companies need to know what the rules are,” said Dave Osiecki, ATA senior vice president of policy and regulatory affairs. “In the case of supporting documentation for hours of service, the requirements have never been established by regulation. ATA has been seeking a fair and cost-effective regulation, consistent with federal law, for more than 15 years.”
A DOT report on significant rulemakings released earlier this month shows the supporting documents rule has been tied to a new proposal on electronic onboard recorders expected to be issued later this year.
Steve Keppler, interim executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, said his group supports ATA’s position. He added that CVSA could decide to formally back the lawsuit during a board meeting in a few weeks.
“It helps us roadside,” he said. “We’re still seeing a lot of falsification, and false logs are a prevalent issue and that’s what the supporting documents are supposed to address.”
