The Restart Amendment
This Editorial appears in the June 9 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Legislating on Capitol Hill has often appeared impervious to reality in recent years. Grandstanding, posturing, score-settling and fleeing unpleasant choices have frequently trumped problem-solving for Main Street.
Therefore, it was actually moving to see the Senate Appropriations Committee agree June 5 in a strongly bipartisan manner to take notice of demonstrated economic fact and move forward a proposal to suspend for one year the changes implemented last July to the restart provision of the hours-of-service rule. (Senate panel takes steps to fix GIS restart)
Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican known for her moderate approach, rounded up a coalition to back her amendment to the annual transportation-spending bill. The amendment passed the full committee 21-9 and would allow the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to come back in a year and argue for restart if it can produce data to show the provision works.
The trucking industry, which put together a significant effort to build support for reversing the changes, accepted the earlier version of the restart rule. The new version is troublesome because it limits restarting to once a week and demands that the 34-hour minimum rest period must include consecutive 1-5 a.m. periods.
American Trucking Associations opposed the new restart proposal when it was first issued in 2010. Trucking company managers who have had to live with the rule since July have been consistent in declaring its unwieldiness.
“America expects its freight to be moved, and these new rules prevent some drivers from taking a restart over the weekend,” said ATA Chairman Philip Byrd Sr., also the president of Bulldog Hiway Express.
“If you’re fortunate enough to be able to take your restart over a weekend, it exacerbates congestion because this regulation dumps concentrated amounts of trucks on the highway system at 5:01 a.m. Monday morning when America is heading off to work and school,” Byrd added.
The Collins amendment is part of the Senate’s transportation spending bill. It still has to pass the Senate and get matched up with a House of Representatives counterpart. Then the entire federal budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 must be passed and signed into law.
There’s a tremendous amount of work yet to be done and not a lot of time available because it’s campaign season for the House and one-third of the Senate.
Still, it is tremendously gratifying to see that elected representatives do on occasion listen to public opinion and act on it.
