FMCSA Waiting on Hours-of-Service Actions
John Hill, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said Friday that the agency was waiting to see if other interested parties took action to delay implementation of a court ruling eliminating significant portions of the hours-of-service rule.
“We have been reluctant to get too far ahead of that process,” Hill told Transport Topics in an interview, adding that the federal agency didn’t want to send “conflicting messages” to states in the event legal maneuverings changed how the rule would be enforced.
A federal appeals court in July struck down portions of the HOS rule allowing truckers to drive 11 hours in a day and that allowed them to reset their weekly driving allotments by taking a 34-hour break.
On Thursday, American Trucking Associations asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to stay its decision for eight months in order to give FMCSA time to make changes to the rule.
ATA also has petitioned FMCSA to issue a temporary, emergency rule maintaining the 11th hour of driving and the 34-hour restart provisions pending revisions to the rule.
“The trucking industry and its customers could not instantaneously shift to an hours-of-service regime with a different daily driving limit and without the 34-hour restart,” ATA said in its court filing. “Rather, such a conversion would require months of preparation.”
While Hill did not address ATA’s petition or the association’s motion with the court, he did offer that FMCSA was in contact with the Department of Justice, which handles litigation for the agency, and they were examining the “value” of filing their own motion for a stay of the ruling.
Hill declined to comment on what steps the FMCSA might take to address the court’s concerns or a timeline for those actions, but did say in a press conference call with reporters the day before that he didn’t think the rule is in line for “significant changes.”
“If the rule goes to 10 hours, and there’s no 34-restart,” he said, “I don’t think that’s going to be a huge adjustment.”
Barring any action by the court or FMCSA, the ruling is currently slated to go into effect on Sept. 14.
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