Highway Bill Deal Reached

Congress was set last week to pass new transportation legislation authorizing highway spending through September 2014, after House and Senate negotiators agreed on a bill that included a mandate for electronic onboard recorders for trucks and a study of the 34-hour restart provision in driver hours-of-service regulations.

Update: The full House and Senate passed the highway bill after this issue went to press.

The bill was agreed on just before expiration on June 30 of the ninth temporary extension of transportation spending legislation that expired in September 2009.

Funding for fiscal year 2013 would be $52.2 billion and in fiscal 2014 would be $52.95 billion.

At press time for Transport Topics, a vote on the bill had not been scheduled, but the measure — or a temporary funding extension — had to pass by June 30 to allow the federal government to continue collecting the fuel taxes that support highway projects and public transit.

For trucking, the bill contained wins and losses. The industry supported several provisions contained in the bill, such as a drug and alcohol clearinghouse for carriers to check driver records, testing of new entrants to the industry and crashworthiness standards for large trucks.

“This legislation, while not all we could have hoped for as an industry and as users of the highway system,makes tremendous strides in the safety arena and puts down a marker for future improvements to our nation’s freight infrastructure,” ATA President Bill Graves said.

Graves also said, however, that ATA was disappointed Congress did not allow changes to truck size and weight that the federation contends are crucial to future productivity.

“By giving into fear-based misinformation, this bill delays the deployment of some of our industry’s safest, most fuel-efficient trucks,” Graves said in a statement.

ATA had pressed Congress to require states to allow rigs with two 33-foot-long trailers on interstate and other highways. Currently, double trailers are limited to 28.5 feet each.

The bill does call for a federal study that would compare the effects of trucks on highways in places with the 80,000 limit versus roads in states where trucks have been granted exceptions to run as heavy as 100,000 pounds.

The House-Senate compromise dropped a provision, supported by trucking, that could have slowed down highway privatization and tolling.

On EOBRs, the bill would direct the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to develop a rule within a year to require electronic logging devices on trucks to track driver hours of service.

“This is a tremendous leap forward for trucking, which will bring our compliance systems into the 21st century, leveling the playing field for our industry, and lead to even fewer crashes on our nation’s highways,” Graves said.

The bill also calls for a field study on the 34-hour restart regulation in the hours-of-service rule FMCSA published in December.

Carriers have complained that the restart regulation, slated to take effect in 2013, will cut into their productivity by effectively limiting drivers to five-day workweeks. The regulation requires that their rest period include resting between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on two consecutive days.

Trucking and House Republicans sought the study but wanted a provision that the rule could not take effect until the study was completed.

The bill also:

• Raises the required bond posting for freight brokers and forwarders to $75,000 from $10,000.

• Directs the Transportation Department to produce inventories of the available safe parking along highways for truckers.

• Directs DOT to develop a national freight strategic plan.

• Blocks publication of a rule on hazardous materials tanker “wetlines” for up to two years.

Staff Reporter Timothy Cama contributed to this story.