Teamsters Call on Obama to Move Forward on HOS

The Teamsters union and highway safety advocates have asked President Obama to “expeditiously more forward” on the new hours of service rule proposed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Citing statistics on truck crashes that they said cost the nation $20 billion in 2009, the labor and safety advocates said in an Oct. 7 letter to Obama that the proposed reduction in driver hours “addresses a serious and deadly public health and safety problem” in trucking.

Studies by the National Transportation Safety Board, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and other research groups show that “truck driver fatigue is a major factor in truck crashes,” the letter said.

In December, the FMCSA un-veiled proposed new HOS rules that would require drivers to take two half-hour rest breaks in their 14-hour work shift, which would cut on-duty time to 13 hours from 14 hours.

Also under the proposed rules changes, the current 34-hour restart provision would be changed, shortening the driver work week. And FMCSA said it is leaning toward reducing the number of hours a driver can be behind the wheel without a long break from the current 11 to 10 hours.

Among the 11 people signing the letter on behalf of organizations they lead were Teamster president James Hoffa and Joan Claybrook, chairwoman of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways.

Truckers, shippers and manufacturers have said reducing driver hours would be an unnecessary and burdensome change for business and a drag on an economy struggling to find traction after a severe recession.

American Trucking Associations and others have pointed out that truck crashes are in decline this decade, proof that the current HOS rule is safe and that drivers perform well with the current hours allowed.

Calls to change the current hours of service are “illogical” and without sound or scientific basis, said Dave Osiecki, who directs policy and regulatory affairs for ATA.

“The framework for the current hours of service regulations has now been in place for eight years without any evidence to suggest that the rules have created a safety problem,” Osiecki said.

The dire predictions made by the signers of the letter when the current rules were issued in 2003 have not come true, he added. Truck safety has improved to “record levels,” he said.

The trucking industry has said the proposed rules changes would drive up the cost of all goods because increased freight overhead would be passed onto consumers.

Jack Gillis, director of public affairs for the Consumer Federation of America, was among those signing the letter to Obama.

The letter followed two other recent letters to Obama that opposed cutting back on hours of service.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) asked in an Oct. 5 letter that the president withdraw the proposed changes (10-10, p. 1).

And a Sept. 23 letter from Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; and two transportation subcommittee chairmen said they would “aggressively” work to block any HOS changes (10-3 p. 1).

The September letter also was signed by Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Small Business Committee and a member of the Transportation Committee.

Boehner and Cantor stated in their letter that the proposed HOS rules changes would constitute a $1 billion regulatory burden on the economy. But the letter from the labor, consumer and safety advocate groups said that the HOS changes would produce a savings of $2.2 billion in current crash, injury and health costs.

The letter also said the proposed “HOS reform” rules would create nearly 40,000 “sorely needed” jobs and that the proposed changes were the result of two federal court rulings that upheld HOS rules adopted before the 2004 change that increased driver hours to current levels.