ATA Mulls Suit Over HOS Rule

American Trucking Associations is “poised” to file a lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration if the agency adopts a proposed rule that would cut driver time to 10 hours a day, ATA Chairman Barbara Windsor said.

“The question is, what should be ATA’s next step if FMCSA comes back with no changes to its current hours-of-service proposal?” Windsor told Transport Topics. “In that case we would be poised to file suit.”

But, she added, “We hope things wouldn’t go in that direction [and] are trying to work together with FMCSA through all of this.”

The proposed HOS rule, announced late last year, adds one hour of off-duty time within the 14-hour workday limiting consecutive driving hours to seven and allowing two 16-hour work days a week if the daily driving limit has not been met.

It also could reduce the maximum allowable daily driving time to 10 hours from the current 11-hour limit. ATA and the trucking and retail industries have opposed the rule and asked the agency to withdraw it.

Robert Digges, ATA’s vice president and chief counsel, said he already has put the organization’s executive counsel on notice that he could at some point recommend taking FMCSA to court if the agency’s proposed rule becomes final this summer.