Editorial: Continuing HOS Worries

This Editorial appears in the Aug. 27 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

The worst part of the seemingly never-ending saga of the attempt to bring the antiquated hours-of-service rules somewhere close to the realities of 21st century trucking is the uncertainty brought on by the current game of legislative and judicial ping-pong being played in slow motion.

Almost a month after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia vacated two key portions of the revised regulations from the Department of Transportation, we have yet to hear what the government intends to do in response.

We continue to believe that DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration can explain, to the court’s satisfaction, the addition of an 11th hour of driving time and the 34-hour clock reset, thus avoiding a wholesale rewriting of the regulations.

While we are hopeful that FMCSA will ask the court’s three judges to stay their ruling until the agency has a chance to respond in depth to their concerns, American Trucking Associations has said it will step in and ask the judges to do so if the agency does not.

We also believe that, by issuing an interim final rule, FMCSA could keep the 11th driving hour for the time being without having to solicit additional public comments.

Unfortunately, FMCSA’s silence on its course of action has raised the anxiety level in much of the industry. We hope the current regulations will be left intact for some time to come. However, it would be prudent for fleets to think about what to do in case the court decides that 10 hours should be the maximum allowed driving time.

The court has said that FMCSA failed to justify, in its revision of the old rules, another consecutive hour of driving time and why it is acceptable for drivers to reset their weekly hours limit by taking 34 consecutive hours off.

It is now incumbent on FMCSA to provide explanations.

We continue to believe that today’s HOS rules are reasonable ones, and we think that the improvement in trucking safety that we have seen since the rules were implemented underscores that contention.

It’s time to put the changes in driving hours behind us so trucking can get on with delivering the nation’s economy efficiently, dependably and safely.