By Eugene Mulero, Staff Reporter This story appears in the July 7 print edition of Transport Topics.
The National Fraternal Order of Police has endorsed suspending the year-old federal hours-of-service rule change, a proposal senators are expected to take up before their August recess.
In a June 26 letter to Senate Appropriations Committee leaders, Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should study the safety implications of its hours-of-service rule that went into effect July 1, 2013. He said the rule currently exposes more motorists to heavy trucks during peak driving times.
Canterbury maintains that the agency didn’t “adequately research the public and highway safety implications of the new HOS regulations.”
Additionally, he dismissed efforts by some groups to promote the rules’ safety claims after the recent truck accident in New Jersey that killed one man and seriously injured others, including actor and comedian Tracy Morgan.
“Nothing in current or pending regulations contributed to this tragic event, as the alleged actions of the driver were unlawful under both regulatory schemes,” Canterbury wrote.
But the Truck Safety Coalition pushed back, calling Canterbury’s letter a showcase of “bizarre support.”
Senate Democratic leaders have yet to indicate when they will again call up a $126 billion spending measure that includes a proposal offered by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to deny funding for last year’s changes to the FMCSA rule.
FMCSA’s HOS rule change mandates truckers account for a 34-hour restart between their workweeks. And they have to include two periods of 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. during that time off.
Collins’ proposal to the bill also would require the agency to review the rules’ safety effects and justify them before Congress. Collins’ proposal, supported by
American Trucking Associations, prompted opposition from a small group of Democrats.
Before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled the bill from the floor June 19, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) offered an amendment that would undo the hours-of-service provision in the spending bill.
“Truck drivers are working extremely long days to deliver
the goods we depend on, but it should never be at the cost of their safety and that of other drivers,” Booker said.
The Obama administration has indicated that it “strongly opposes” Collins’ efforts to curb the federal workweek rules for truckers.
Amid the ongoing debate, FMCSA continues to defend the new rules.
Agency spokeswoman Marissa Padilla told Transport Topics last month that the current fatigue-prevention rules for truck drivers are the product of extensive, real-world research and to claim otherwise would be to ignore the facts.
“One of the largest studies ever conducted using commercial drivers confirmed the 34-hour restart with two nights of rest is more effective at combating fatigue than the previous version,” Padilla said.
