Economy
Senate Passes Suspension of Trucking Regulation
Written by Sandy Williams
December 16, 2014
American Trucking Association applauded Congress “for the common sense fix to two unjustified provisions of the current hours-of-service restart rules in this year’s omnibus spending bill.”
The Omnibus Appropriations bill, passed in a bi-partisan vote on Saturday evening, provides funding for the federal government including the Department of Transportation. An amendment to the bill temporarily suspends the current 34-hour restart provision of the hours of service rules and reverts to the pre-July 1, 2013 rules. Drivers will no longer be required to include two rest periods between 1-5 a.m. during the 34 hour restart time.
During the suspension the Department of Transportation will compare the effectiveness of the two versions of the restart rule. “We have known since the beginning that the federal government did not properly evaluate the potential impacts of the changes it made in July 2013,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “Now, thanks to the hard work of Senator Collins and many others, we have a common sense solution. Suspending these restrictions until all the proper research can be done is a reasonable step.”
“The facts, in this case, show that the trucking industry is dedicated to safety,” continued Graves in the ATA statement. “Facts that demonstrate our drivers are not overworked or pushed to extremes like our critics contend – the average driver works a little more than 50 hours per week and only 2% work more than 61 hours. There has been an increase in early hour driving by truckers – statistically the riskiest time of day and an unpopular outcome of this rule according to a national poll from Public Opinion Strategies. The fact that under the previous rule, large truck-involved crashes fell 27% in a decade,” Graves said. “These facts should be remembered not just by policymakers, but by trucking’s critics the next time they unfairly malign an industry that moves nearly 70% of the nation’s freight and does so with a commitment to safety that is second to none.”
The Appropriations bill requires the signature of the President before the new provision can go into effect and will last until the end of fiscal year 2015.
Sandy Williams
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