Sen. Deb Fischer Criticizes FMCSA’s Approach to Rulemaking on 34-Hour Restart

If the federal government had taken a performance-based rather than a prescriptive approach to its 34-hour restart rule, the regulation might have enhanced safety rather than adversely affected trucking operations, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) said at a hearing this week.

“Instead, the overly prescriptive 34-hour restart provisions that were implemented in July 2013 mandate the exact time that drivers should sleep,” said the chairwoman of the Commerce Committee subcommittee on surface transportation.

“This rule disrupted supply chains and led stakeholders to raise serious questions about the overall impact on safety of the regulation,” Fischer said at the March 24 subcommittee hearing on how to build transportation programs on performance instead of government prescriptions.

Congress has suspended the restart rule, voting last year to do so until Sept. 30 pending a study on whether the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s rule is improving or diminishing highway safety.

Under the restart rule, drivers must take a rest break between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on two consecutive days, meaning their work week has effectively been cut from 80 to 70 hours.

Under Secretary of Transportation Peter M. Rogoff, one of the witnesses at the subcommittee hearing, defended the 34-hour restart rule and called the suspension “misguided.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said the suspension was both misguided and “unfortunate” and that the hours-of-service rule that contains the 34-hour restart mandate is intended to curb truck crashes that result from driver fatigue.