ATA Poised to Challenge HOS Rule on Restart, Breaks, Local Drivers

American Trucking Associations will challenge several provisions of the new federal hours-of-service rule, including its restart provision, a mandatory 30-minute break and a narrowing of certain exceptions for local delivery drivers.

In a “statement of issues” brief filed March 15 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, ATA branded the rule’s restart provision as “arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law” and said it should be set aside. The provision requires drivers to take a 34-hour rest — including two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. stretches — before starting a new workweek.

The trucking federation also objected to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new limitation on the use of the restart provision to not more than once a week (168 hours), saying it should be rejected by the court.

The brief did not reveal the arguments ATA plans to advance in its lawsuit, which was filed Feb. 14.

“While we had hoped to avoid litigation by providing FMCSA with overwhelming evidence that their rulemaking process and proposals were flawed, now that we have challenged this regulation we will do so vigorously and vocally,” ATA President Bill Graves said in a statement.

ATA also said it will attack a provision that requires drivers to take a 30-minute break within the first eight hours of driving time.

The trucking federation further said it will challenge the “narrowing — without prior notice — of certain exemptions to drive-time regulations for local delivery drivers.”

FMCSA announced its latest revision to the hours rule in late December and said it would go into effect in July 2013.

On the issue of local drivers, ATA Deputy Chief Counsel Richard Pianka said the association objects to another requirement that drivers who do local deliveries must take a 30-minute break during their first eight hours of driving time. That provision was intended primarily for longhaul drivers, Pianka said.

In a related development, the Truckload Carriers Association filed a motion March 15 to intervene as a party in the hours lawsuit and participate fully in the proceeding.

TCA said the hours rule will have a “direct, negative effect on the efficiency, productivity and safety of the truckload industry, and input from TCA will greatly assist this court in understanding the effect of the regulations.”

ATA’s lawsuit claimed that the hours rule was based on flawed assumptions and analysis (2-20, p. 1).

Several advocacy groups also filed a lawsuit challenging the hours rule on Feb. 24, saying it does not go far enough to prevent fatigue among truck drivers (3-5, p. 3). They included the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Public Citizen, the Truck Safety Coalition and the Teamsters union. Both legal challenges since have been consolidated by the court into a single lawsuit.

The new FMCSA hours rule also reduces total driving hours to 70 per week from 82.

The agency retained the maximum of 11 hours of driving per day, even though FMCSA officials previously had expressed a preference to reduce the daily cap to 10 hours.

The new rule maintains the maximum window for driving to 14 consecutive hours after a driver comes on duty but allows a driver to work on tasks other than driving during the 14-hour window.

The fight in the federal courts over the hours-of-service rule dates back to 2003, when Annette Sandberg, then acting administrator of FMCSA, introduced a “final” hours-of-service rule that extended allowable driving hours to the current 11 from 10 but cut drivers’ overall workday to 14 hours from 15 hours.