Ferro, House Republicans Spar Over HOS Rule Changes

This story appears in the Nov. 25 print edition of Transport Topics.

House Republicans and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Anne Ferro sparred over the 34-hour restart provision of the new hours-of-service rule for truck drivers at a hearing last week, with some members accusing her agency of “arrogance” and slowness in producing a congressionally required study on the rule.

Ferro defended her agency’s “data-driven” standards at the Nov. 21 hearing and insisted the full HOS rule stay in place.

Also at the hearing before a panel of the Small Business Committee, three businessmen involved in trucking took issue with Ferro’s assessment that the rule 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 latest version of the FMCSA’s HOS rule that went into 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 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 the MAP-21 highway funding law during the first quarter of next year. The study was due Sept. 30, said the subcommittee’s chairman, Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), who has written a bill calling for a partial suspension of the new rule.

Hanna said the small-business community is deeply concerned about the rule, not just because of trucking companies that are small businesses, but because many small businesses are highly dependent on efficient trucking services. He said the process of changing the restart provision before a study on it was completed displayed “arrogance,” and he asked Ferro to reinstate the old guidelines. But she responded with a firm “no.”

Ferro said FMCSA’s regulatory efforts have contributed to the decline in truck-involved fatalities on U.S. roads to 3,921 in 2012 — according to figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — from 5,380 in 1999, the year before Congress created FMCSA. The lowest level for such fatalities was 3,380 in 2009.

FMCSA estimates the new version of HOS will prevent 1,400 truck-involved crashes, 560 injuries and 19 deaths a year. All parties were quick to agree that every human life is precious, but Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) said he was skeptical that a change of 0.5% in truck-involved fatalities could be accurately predicted beforehand or attributed to specific reasons after the fact.

Long, who also is first vice chairman of American Trucking Associations, characterized the July 1 version of HOS as a “solution in search of a problem.” He noted that truck-involved fatalities dropped to the 2009 low point while the 2003 version of the rule — which included a restart provision but not the early morning criteria — was in effect.

Long, Curl and Arkansas freight broker Brian Evans said they supported Hanna’s bill, which is co-sponsored by Rice and Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine). The three representatives call their bill the True Understanding of the Economy and Safety Act.

The bill would suspend the new restart provision until after Congress’ Government Accountability Office studies FMCSA’s process for writing the provision.

Curl said he also does not like the mandatory 30-minute break after eight hours mandated in the provision. He said his previous habit was to drive for three or four hours and then stop for 15 minutes.

Now, however, he has to spend more consecutive hours behind the wheel than he would prefer.

Paul Jovanis, a Penn State transportation professor, said his studies show that the longer someone drives continuously, the more likely he is to have an accident. Based on that, Jovanis said Curl’s choice of more short breaks is probably safer than a longer break after a longer period of time.

Long cited recent work by the American Transportation Research Institute as demonstrating the significant negative effects of the restart provision.

Ferro dismissed the ATRI surveys as being the product of a “vote early, vote often” methodology lacking statistical validity.