Ferro, House Republicans Spar Over HOS Restart Restrictions
Republican House members and FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro sparred over the 34-hour restart provision of the new hours-of-service rule for truck drivers at a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing.
Representatives accused her agency of “arrogance” and slowness in producing a congressionally-required study on the provision and Ferro defending her agency’s “data driven” standards and insisting the rule stay in place.
In the second half of the Nov. 21 hearing before a panel of the Small Business Committee, three businessmen involved in trucking took issue with Ferro’s assessment that the new rule from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has had only a minor effect on operations, saying it has had a significant impact on methods of work and the ability to service customers.
“A lot of our driving teams — often a husband and wife — will lose one week’s pay per year because of this if trends continue,” Duane Long, chairman of Longistics Inc. in Raleigh, N.C., told the subcommittee.
Owner-operator Tilden Curl Jr. said the rule that took effect July 1 is costing him between $4,000 and $5,000 a month. He also said he must do more driving during Seattle’s morning rush-hour, a situation he would prefer to avoid.
A major change in the rule requires those drivers using the 34-hour restart to include the period of 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. on consecutive days, and that they can use restart only once a week.
Ferro said only about 15% of truck drivers use the 34-hour provision and that drivers working less than 60 hours a week never have to do so. She also said FMCSA will complete the study ordered by MAP-21 sometime during the first quarter of next year. The study was due Sept. 30, said subcommittee Chairman Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), who has written a bill calling for the suspension of the rule.
