Sen. Debra Fischer Chides FMCSA for Approach on Restart Rule

This story appears in the March 30 print edition of Transport Topics.

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. Debra Fischer (R-Neb.) said at a hearing last week.

“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 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 March 24.

Congress suspended the restart rule 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.

Undersecretary of Transportation Peter M. Rogoff, one of the witnesses at the subcommittee hearing, 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 fatal and injurious truck crashes due to driver fatigue.

Rogoff said after the hearing that the U.S. Department of Transportation will follow the law “assiduously” in doing the study, but he reiterated that DOT views the suspension as “wrong-headed and risky for the driving public.”

He also said that only about 15% of the truck driver population is affected by the restart rule but that in suspending the rule, Congress has allowed those drivers already spending the most time behind the wheel to spend even more.

“There is no other industry in transportation where we allow companies or even self-employed individuals to work those kinds of hours,” Rogoff said.

The suspension resulted from “misinformation” that implied the 34-hour restart would result in “a massive, sudden influx of trucks” on the road at 5 a.m. that would worsen congestion, something that has not happened, Rogoff said.

Fischer, who has said she’s drafting legislation to reform how FMCSA develops truck safety rules, had some praise for the agency’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program. With CSA, the agency has attempted a more data-driven approach, as shown in its safety scoring system for carriers, she said.

“Although the CSA program is deeply flawed, implementing regulations that are informed by past performance and focus on future risk is a step in the right direction,” she said.

However, like the restart rule, CSA has drawn the ire of some lawmakers who say the regulations are not improving safety but instead hurting businesses and the economy in general.

Earlier this month, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, said he plans to propose legislation to overhaul CSA, particularly with respect to truck crash data.

The trucking industry has raised concerns about CSA, in part because FMCSA is making carrier crash data public without specifying who is at fault in a crash. Carriers have said this is unfair because they can be labeled unsafe even if their vehicle was at a standstill.

Overall, the hearing addressed the broad spectrum of transportation safety as part of Congress’ effort this year to write a new transportation reauthorization law. The current law, MAP-21, expires May 31.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, said America’s transportation system is not performing and is struggling with costly highway congestion and freight backups at ports.

“Our federal transportation funding overly prescribes how we fund the system rather than focusing on the performance of the system,” he said.

David Nichols, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation, told the senators, “Performance management, if implemented in a logical and thoughtful way, can be a powerful tool in managing the performance of the entire transportation system.”

MoDOT has worked to create a performance-based culture within the agency, said Nichols, also acting chairman for the standing committee on performance management for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

In the safety area, Nichols said, MoDOT’s emphasis on the performance of the system has helped reduce traffic fatalities to 766 in 2014 from 1,257 in 2005.