Trucking’s Waiting Game

 As trucking’s most important get-together of the year nears, the industry finds itself waiting for a number of decisions from the Obama administration that will have a major influence on fleet operations for years to come.

When fleet executives gather in Phoenix for American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition later this month, they are likely to be looking still for the administration’s rulings on driver hours of service, the first-ever set of fuel-efficiency standards for trucks and a new rule on the use of electronic onboard recorders.

There have been lots of rumors about the administration’s intentions for all three issues, but few facts.

The administration is in the final phases of yet another review of hours of service, having agreed to do so to settle a federal court lawsuit by critics of the rule.

The Department of Transportation’s proposal has been under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget since this summer and is due out by the end of this month.

Many fleet executives are concerned about unconfirmed reports that DOT is going to propose cutting the current maximum of 11 driving hours a day that is contained in the existing rule, even though that rule has led to a historic drop in truck-involved highway deaths.

The industry also is concerned about the direction the government intends to take with its first-ever truck fuel-mileage rule, which is currently under OMB review. The rule is expected to be made public by the middle of November.

The trucking industry welcomes attempts to improve fuel efficiency, because fuel is one of fleets’ major costs, but it is unclear how the regulators will propose to measure efficiency, given the complicated nature of freight hauling. Setting passenger car fuel standards is relatively simple, but fleets wonder how the government intends to compare fuel performance of over-the-road trucks with local pickup and delivery vehicles or with vehicles that operate over mountains or with tractors hauling loads of widely varying weights.

Also hanging fire but not yet at OMB is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new rule governing the use of electronic onboard recorders for hours-of-service compliance.

FMCSA has been ordered to deliver the rule to OMB by the end of the year, and trucking won’t know until then how many fleets will be required to install the devices.

So, fleet executives surely will talk and compare notes about those pending decisions when they’re in Phoenix, but final answers are unlikely before the meeting ends.