DOT Delays New Regulations; Onboard Recorder Rule Stalls

Sean McNally, Senior Reporter

This story appears in the Oct. 8 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Several new regulations expected from the U.S. Department of Transportation will be delayed and others, including a long-awaited regulation encouraging the use of electronic onboard recorders, could fall even further behind schedule because of a recent court ruling scrapping part of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s driver-hours rule, DOT said.

The progress of several rules at FMCSA, as well as a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulation to slash the stopping distance of heavy trucks, has slipped for a number of reasons, according to a September report by DOT’s assistant general counsel for regulation and enforcement.

“That’s an ongoing concern that everyone has, that they are spending far too much time on hours-of-service-related issues at the expense of arguably more important safety related issues, including some rulemaking activities,” said Dave Osiecki, vice president of safety, security and operations for American Trucking Associations.

The monthly report’s January edition had said a court-mandated revision of the entry-level driver training rule was supposed to have been published in early June, but now it won’t come out until late November. DOT cited the need for “additional coordination” and “other, higher priorities.”

September’s report also listed “higher priorities” as the reason for delaying the Unified Registration System, which was proposed earlier this year and would combine a number of federal registration programs.

The agency now is working on a supplement to the registration proposal, the report said. The supplement originally was slated for publication in late June, but now will not be made public until the end of March and, in fact, has yet to be sent to the secretary of transportation’s office — the first step in the review process for rules.

“We are widely distributing the draft [of the URS] rule within the department to make sure that

all implementation issues are addressed as the rule progresses,” FMCSA spokeswoman Melissa Mazzella DeLaney told Transport Topics. “The other priorities are the new-entrant safety assurance program and EOBRs.”

A final electronic onboard recorder rule, however, could

be at risk because of the court ruling striking down parts of the HOS rule.

Under the proposed EOBR rule, fleets that habitually violate the hours regulation would be forced to monitor drivers via EOBRs, while fleets that voluntarily use the devices would get relief from various recordkeeping requirements.

“The EOBR rule is on schedule, but we are waiting for the courts to act on hours of service before moving forward,” DeLaney said.

Trucking industry officials said the agency’s focus on addressing the concerns of a federal court about the hours rule could put a further dent in FMCSA’s timetables for other rules.

Another HOS-related rule FMCSA is working on is the supporting-documents regulation, which spells out what evidence fleets must keep to back up their drivers’ logbooks.

Earlier this year, FMCSA Administrator John Hill said errors were found in the analysis supporting the documents rule and as a result, that analysis would need to be revamped (1-22, p. 31).

In its September report, DOT said it was withdrawing the rule and did not announce a timeline for a replacement proposal. DeLaney said the withdrawal notice “should be published shortly.”

FMCSA was not alone in having a regulatory backlog.

NHTSA’s long-awaited new stopping-distance rule for heavy trucks also has been pushed back be-cause of the need for “additional coordination.”

“We have a full plate of regulatory actions that we’re taking and the [truck brake rule] of course is a major one,” NHTSA spokesman Eric Bolton told TT. “We just needed to have some additional time to make sure that all the i’s were dotted and the t’s were crossed.”

According to the January report, the final rule, which would cut the maximum allowable distance for heavy trucks by 20% to 30%, was scheduled for publication in late May, but because of “additional coordination,” the rule now is not scheduled to go to the White House for review until early December and is expected to be published in March 2008.

NHTSA’s proposal would re-quire trucks traveling at 60 mph to come to a stop between 249 feet and 284 feet. The current standard is 355 feet.