Court Issues Split Ruling on Drivers’ Hours of Service Rule
A federal court issued a split ruling Tuesday on the government’s rules governing truck driver hours of service, rejecting a petition by a group representing owner-operators but granting a separate request by a public safety advocate group.
American Trucking Associations said it will seek a stay from the court to keep current rules in place until the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration provides the court with explanations for two of the rules provisions, the group said following the ruling.
“ATA believes the existing rules have proven to be a significant improvement over the old rules in terms of reducing driver fatigue and related incidents,” said ATA President Bill Graves.
“Motor carrier experience and FMCSA data dramatically illustrate this. ATA plans to provide additional real-world documentation of the effectiveness of the current rules,” Graves said in a statement.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia’s decision denied a motion by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association but granted a request by Public Citizen and other groups to overturn portions of the HOS rule.
The court’s ruling ends nearly eight months of speculating about the fate of the rule, which will now go back to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
The three-judge panel ruled that FMCSA “failed to give interested parties an opportunity to comment on the methodology of the crash-risk model that the agency used to justify an increase in the maximum number of daily and weekly hours that truck drivers may drive and work.”
“We also find that the agency failed to provide an explanation for critical elements of that methodology,” the court stated.
In a written statement, FMCSA said it was evaluating its next step.
“We are analyzing the decision issued today to understand the court’s findings as well as determine the agency’s next steps to prevent driver fatigue, ensure safe and efficient motor carrier operations and save lives,” FMCSA said. “This decision does not go into effect until Sept. 14, unless the court orders otherwise.”
The court vacated the portions of the rule that extended the maximum allowable driving time to 11 hours from the previous limit of 10, and eliminated the so-called 34-hour restart, which allows drivers to reset their maximum allowable hours in a week.
The ruling maintains the limit for drivers’ work time of 14 consecutive hours. Previously, the agency had allowed drivers to work for 15 hours per day, but had let them clock on and off duty.
The court setback is FMCSA’s second since it first tried to rewrite the hours rules in 2003. The 2003 regulation was entirely vacated by the court in July 2004, but a one-year congressional extension allowed the agency to work on a revision with the struck-down rule in place.
FMCSA issued a new rule in 2005, making almost no changes to the previously voided rule, but making modifications to the provisions governing sleeper berth use.
OOIDA had challenged these rules, saying they were too inflexible and created an unsafe driving environment, but that challenge was rejected by the court.
By Transport Topics
Senior Reporter Sean McNally contributed to this story.
