McCormick: Hours-of-Service Reform Tops ATA Safety Agenda for 1999
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Congressional panel hears call for increased In a speech scheduled for delivery at a National Press Club lunch Feb. 26, McCormick also repeated calls for creation of a separate motor carrier administration within the Department of Transportation and for increased funding for state motor carrier inspections through the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program. Both proposals are supported by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.
McCormick has made replacing the existing hours-of-service regulations with rules based on the latest fatigue research his top policy priority since joining ATA in January 1998.
The 65-year-old rules generally limit the time truck drivers can spend behind the wheel to 10 hours. The Federal Highway Administration is developing revisions to the rules and is considering whether to negotiate new regulations with trucking and other affected parties. ATA supports science-based rules that allow drivers to get sufficient rest.
The association also is renewing its call for additional parking spaces at highway rest areas. A study conducted by the Trucking Research Institute of the ATA Foundation identified a shortage of 28,400 truck parking spaces.
In his prepared remarks for delivery at the Transportation Table, McCormick also pushed for a doubling of the federal truck safety research budget and increased funding of the Federal Highway Administration’s “No Zone” and other highway safety education programs.
ATA is also pushing for a federal ban on products designed and marketed to beat drug tests (12-28, p. 24). In addition, positive drug and alcohol test results should be included either on a driver’s commercial drivers license record or another federal database accessible by motor carriers, McCormick said.
The agenda was developed by the association’s Safety and Engineering Policy Committee during two days of meetings at ATA’s Winter Leadership Meeting last month.
Among the other items on the agenda is a federal ban on the sale and advertising of "adulterants," chemicals that are used to beat drug tests.
Such products, which are readily available on the Internet, can be used to conceal drugs that allow truckers to work longer hours.
The trucking association also is calling for a doubling of the nation's $100 million roadside truck inspection program, better inspections of trucks entering the United States from Mexico and the construction of more highway rest stops.
ATA's agenda comes just three days after Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., held a lengthy hearing about trucking safety.
Wolf has proposed legislation that would switch oversight of the trucking industry from the federal Office of Motor Carriers to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That agency has increased seat belt use and cut drunken driving deaths in recent years.
Wolf believes the Office of Motor Carriers is too closely aligned with the trucking industry, which was borne out in a recent report showing that top OMC officials worked with truckers last fall to lobby Congress against the proposed switch.
In his speech text, McCormick said he continued to oppose the transfer in oversight.
Also included in the ATA's safety priority list is a proposal to strengthen the federal truck licensing program by having states use the same terms when they issue tickets to truckers.
The group also wants to double federal truck safety research funding to $15 million a year and to increase funding for public education programs.
Several speakers at the hearing Feb. 23 complained that many automobile drivers trigger truck crashes by operating in a trucker's blind spot or by swerving into the safety buffer a trucker has left between himself and the car in front of him.
