Ferro Says FMCSA Should Complete Work on New Hours-of-Service Rule by October

This story appears in the May 30 print edition of Transport Topics.

BALTIMORE — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration expects to complete work on hours-of-service rule revisions by late October, three months later than its original target date, according to Administrator Anne Ferro.

“We have the goal of having a final rule at the end of October,” Ferro said May 24 at the National Tank Truck Carriers Conference here. She said the additional time was needed for consideration of four new research studies that were entered into the docket earlier this month.

She said those studies were added by the agency “to ensure that high standards are maintained” in the hours-of-service review.

Two of the studies, done by university researchers in Virginia and Pennsylvania, assess truck drivers’ fatigue levels and two others concern bus drivers. The studies weren’t added until this month because they weren’t complete when FMCSA’s latest proposal was issued in December.

The new target date for FMCSA’s completion of revisions to driver hours-of-service regulations pushes the process beyond the July 26 deadline set by a federal judge in October 2009.

FMCSA, in a May 20 court filing, advised the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia, which had set the July deadline, that its new target was Oct. 28.

The July 26 date was set when a suit against the agency by groups including Public Citizen and the Teamsters union was settled. That suit challenged the current rule and was the latest in a series of court actions that have shaped the hours-of-service issue for nearly a decade.

The new timeline marked the latest twist in the ongoing hours-of-service saga, in which fleets are facing the possible reduction of one driving hour from the current 11 to 10, as well as strict new limits on rest periods, both during work and between assignments.

Industry reaction to Ferro’s comments about the new schedule for the hours review was muted.

Public Citizen, the group that led the challenge to the hours-of-service rule, has no objection to the delay, spokesman Greg Beck said.

“We look forward to the agency making a sound decision, regardless of the timeline, based on hard safety data showing that trucking has never been safer, rather than reliance on questionable studies,” said Norita Taylor, spokeswoman for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

“We hope the agency uses this extra time to examine the dramatic improvements in truck safety achieved by the industry since the current rules went into effect,” American Trucking Associations spokesman Sean McNally said.

In her remarks to NTTC, Ferro also commented on FMCSA’s work on several other projects.

“We are carrying through on a series of agendas and initiatives that were started before,” Ferro said. “We have been very busy for all the right reasons. We have hit the time where we have to get some of this stuff out.”

She said the agency intends to issue its first grant of provisional operating authority to a Mexican trucking company in August. The Department of Transportation is starting a three-year pilot program to allow a limited number of Mexican carriers to deliver throughout the United States, following a deal struck between President Obama and President Felipe Calderon of Mexico that calls for opening the countries’ border to Mexican trucks.

Calderon has agreed that after Mexican trucks are allowed into the United States, Mexico will begin lifting retaliatory tariffs — worth more than $2 billion — the country imposed on a wide range of U.S. products.

Like the driver hours-of-service conflict, the Mexican trucking issue has been a familiar battleground.

That fight began in the late 1990s, when President Clinton blocked the cross-border trucking required by the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

Mexico imposed its tariffs after the United States in 2009 ended a pilot program that began in 2007 and allowed some Mexican fleets to deliver beyond a border trade zone.

Ferro also said the agency expects to complete work on its proposed mandate for electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs) by May 2012.

That timeline calls for issuing a final rule one year after the comment period closes. DOT’s proposal would require the devices for any driver who is required to file on-duty logs. Ferro estimated that would cover 95% of the nation’s drivers, including anyone who does intercity operations.

“We have every reason to move forward aggressively,” she said. “We are giving ourselves a tight timeline. Our objective is to have the EOBR rule final by this time next year.”

Ferro also highlighted the shipper’s role in trucking safety.

“Shippers influence the ability of drivers to operate safely,” she said. “I am having conversations with them about EOBRs. Shippers need to know what kind of safety environment trucking companies will be operating under in the near future.”