ATA Wants Hours Proposal Research

Before the Department of Transportation issues its proposed hours-of-service rules for truck drivers, it should make public the scientific research used to draw up the measure, insists American Trucking Associations.

In a petition filed Aug. 5 with the department, ATA requested publication in the Federal Register of all the scientific studies, findings and principles the department plans to use in preparing the first overhaul of hours of service since the 1930s.

The request comes as DOT puts the finishing touches on its hours-of-service proposal, which reportedly would reduce the maximum hours of on-duty time for truck drivers from 15 to 12 hours a day.

The public should have at least 90 days to comment on the studies, findings and principles, and the department should consider the comments in developing the rule, ATA wrote in its request.

The department should rely upon the science underlying human fatigue and fatigue management when it addresses hours of service for employees in all modes of transportation,” ATA President Walter B. McCormick Jr. said in the petition.

“The opportunity to comment serves the interests of the public in general, those affected by the regulations and the department because it increases the likelihood that regulations issued by the department will have a sound scientific basis,” he wrote.

The petition was filed after a review of a recent report recommending DOT not negotiate the hours-of-service rule (6-21, p. 1). The report was commissioned by DOT to determine the feasibility of holding talks with affected parties rather than the traditional rulemaking process.

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