House Subcommittee Oversight Plan Includes CSA, Hours of Service
By Timothy Cama, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Feb. 4 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
A House subcommittee on highways has targeted some of the top issues for the trucking industry in its oversight plan for the next two years, including the hours-of-service rule for truck drivers and the Compliance, Safety, Accountability ratings program.
Those issues, both under the purview of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, were cited in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s oversight plan, which the subcommittee voted to adopt Jan. 23.
The House Transportation Subcommittee on Highways and Transit has jurisdiction over FMCSA, and Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) is its chairman. It did not identify any specific actions it plans to take on those issues.
The plan focuses specifically on the latest changes to the hours-of-service rule set to take effect July 1. Under the rule, a 34-hour restart, which allows truck drivers to reset their weekly driving limits, will be restricted to one use every seven days, and it must include two periods from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Drivers also must take a half-hour rest break before driving more than eight hours.
“The trucking industry has raised concerns that the proposed changes are overly complex, potentially reducing productivity,” the subcommittee said, adding that law enforcement agencies are concerned about the additional training the regulation may require.
The subcommittee “will maintain close oversight of the rulemaking process,” it said, to ensure that FMCSA is keeping with its mission to improve highway safety while ensuring that freight movement is efficient.
American Trucking Associations and Public Citizen, along with allies of both groups, have sued to stop the hours-of-service changes. A federal court will hear arguments from both sides March 15.
Similarly, the subcommittee vowed to “continue to monitor developments” in FMCSA’s management of CSA, which the agency launched in December 2010.
The oversight plan noted that a September 2012 hearing on CSA spurred the subcommittee’s leaders to ask that the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General audit the program. The panel asked that it be completed by the end of 2013.
CSA was named the most critical issue facing the trucking industry in a survey conducted by the American Transportation Research Institute last year.
The subcommittee also said it would dedicate some time to exploring “alternative financing” for highway infrastructure, including existing programs such as federal loans under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, public-private partnerships and tolling.
The subcommittee will assess the roles those programs play and how states and localities are using them, it said.
