Ferro Says No Delay Planned for New HOS Rule Enforcement
This story appears in the April 1 print edition of Transport Topics.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Despite pleas from bipartisan groups of lawmakers in Congress and the uncertain outcome of court challenges, there will not be any delay to the July 1 start date for enforcing the newest modifications to the hours-of-service rule, said Anne Ferro, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
“It’s been out for 15 months now, just about,” Ferro told reporters on March 22 at the Mid-America Trucking Show here, referring to the December 2011 publication of the rule in the Federal Register. “That’s lots of time to prepare.”
Lawmakers asked for a delay while awaiting a federal appeals court decision challenging the changes, but Ferro cited uncertainty over the timing of the court’s ruling.
“Who here can really accurately predict the timing of the court decision? That could be a full year plus lost on some important safety benefits,” Ferro said. “So, July is the effective date.”
She said the changes offer safety benefits that reduce “cumulative fatigue” among truckers, making it “a very important rule to move forward on.”
In a March 18 letter, leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee asked Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to delay the rule’s enforcement until three months after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decides the rule’s fate.
American Trucking Associations and Public Citizen are both challenging parts of the rule, and they presented their arguments during March.
Pushing back the enforcement date would avoid “costly and unnecessary training” for law enforcement and the trucking industry if the court changes or overturns the rule, the four congressmen, led by committee Chairman Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), wrote.
On March 20, three leaders of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees’ subcommittees on transportation, housing and urban development and related agencies wrote a similar letter, addressed to Ferro. That group was led by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), ranking member of the Senate’s subcommittee.
Ferro said she received both letters and would respond formally, but she was moving ahead on the planned enforcement date.
If the rule is enforced, truck drivers will have to take a 30-minute non-working rest break before driving more than eight hours, and will be restricted in how they use the optional 34-hour restart to reset their weekly driving limits. The restart will be able to be used only once every seven days, and it will have to include two periods from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.
ATA is seeking to have those provisions overturned, while Public Citizen and its allies are trying to get the 11-hour driving day cut to 10 hours and the restart eliminated.
In their letters to LaHood and Ferro, all of the lawmakers said the D.C. court probably will rule by June on both challenges, but no one can be sure.
ATA asked for a delay in January, a request FMCSA denied. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association both agreed with ATA’s request.
ATA has cited an FMCSA analysis estimating that preparing for the rule would cost the trucking industry $320 million.
