FHWA Denounces Speculation on 14-Hour Rest Period

A Federal Highway Administration spokeswoman last week criticized speculation about the contents of an hours-of-service reform the agency is drafting.

“Any speculation is complete speculation and is unhelpful to the process,” Gail Shibley said in an Aug. 12 interview.

Shibley was responding to published reports that the proposal would force drivers to be off duty for at least 14 hours in a 24-hour period.

“I don’t know how the speculation started, but if the goal was to influence a certain outcome, I think they’ve failed,” she said.

Shibley would not say what changes the agency is considering as it works on the first major overhaul of the hours regulation since it was issued in 1937.

Nor would Shibley say where the agency is in the rulemaking process. “We are diligently continuing with developing the rule and will publish it as soon as it as ready and not a moment before,” she said.

When it issues its proposal, the agency will aggressively seek public comment on it, Shibley said.

ongress ordered FHWA to have a proposal ready by November 1997 and to issue a final rule by Nov. 5, 1999. FHWA came out with an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking in 1997, which attracted 752 comments from trucking, safety groups, drivers and other interested parties.

Shibley’s comments came a week after American Trucking Associations urged FHWA to make public the scientific research being used to develop its rule (8-9, p. 2).

The agency has conducted extensive research on the issue, including a comprehensive study on truck driver fatigue, and has examined fatigue research done in other modes of transportation.

“Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater has stated and the department has consistently made known that the rule will be based on sound science,” Shibley said.