HOS restart provision in legislative flux

Regardless of capacity, pricing, or the economy, trucking industry regulations are never far from the freight transportation limelight. That is especially evident when it comes to the federally mandated hours-of-service (HOS) regulations.

As usual, the current state of HOS remains somewhat fluid. And the reason for that has to do with legislation coming from the Senate Transportation Appropriations legislation that is currently being considered by the Senate.

At the heart of the matter is the 34-hour restart rule that took effect in June 2013. The restart rules require truckers who maximize their weekly work hours must take at least two nights’ rest when their 24-hour body clock demands sleep the most—from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. This rest requirement allows drivers to restart the clock on their workweek by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off-duty. The final rule allows drivers to use the restart provision only once during a seven-day period.

This restart rule has been shelved since December 2014, with the objective to
suspend the new HOS restart rules for one year and during that time have the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration study the rule during that time to analyze its safety benefits and provide an understanding if how the restart changes impact drivers, as well as safety and productivity issues in trucking.

Well, more than a year has gone by and there is still no formal FMCSA study out there at least publicly, with any type of findings in regards to the suspension of the 34-hours restart for better or worse.

As reported by LM’s John Schulz, the federal omnibus spending bill passed in late December and signed into law by President Obama included language intended to scrap only the provision that truck drivers working overnight would be required to take at least two 30-minute rest breaks between 1 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The trucking lobby viewed that requirement as burdensome and costly – and won a reprieve pending a thorough study now being completed by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Unless that study of more than 250 truck drivers can show a direct correlation between those rest breaks and trucking safety – which most observers say will be nearly impossible – that provision will be scrapped entirely.

Schulz, citing the American Trucking Associations, added that there is another problem in that the exact language of Section 133 of the omnibus spending bill did not include a provision “specifically stipulating” that the industry would continue to operate under the old restart rules if the study does not show significant benefits from the new restrictions.

That all leads to a statement issued this week by The Trucking Alliance, a concern comprised of large truckload carriers JB Hunt Transport, Maverick Transportation, Dupre Logistics, and Knight Transportation.

The Trucking Alliance cited the following from the Senate Appropriations Legislation:“Section 131 makes a technical correction to the hours of service provision in Section. 133 of division L of title I of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, Public Law 114-113. If the 34-hour restart rule in effect June 30, 2013, is restored, then drivers who use the 34-hour restart may not drive after being on duty more than 73 hours in a 7-day period.”

And it explained it is asking the Senate to remove the proposed ’73 hours in a 7-day period’ provision removed from the bill for the reasons listed below:
1-Congress has mandated that interstate trucking companies install electronic logging devices (ELDs) by December 2017 to verify truck driver hours-of-service compliance. The statistical data produced by this technology should guide future changes in truck driver hours of service rules, rather than a political decision by Congress;
2-The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) should keep its rule making authority over all aspects of truck driver hours of service rules. Codifying any part of the rule, as this language does, would make it virtually impossible for the FMCSA to change the rule, if ELD data show adjustments to the rule are necessary to reduce truck driver fatigue;
3-The proposed ’73-hours in a 7-day period’ would create widespread confusion throughout the industry, since drivers operate under either a ’60-hour/7 days limit’ or a ’70-hour/8 days limit’; and
4-Congress would unwittingly override existing rules and by adopting this language, actually create an additional 13 hours of work for drivers who are on the 60 hour/7-days schedule

“The Trucking Alliance urges the U.S. Senate to avoid codifying a ’73 hours in a 7-day period’ that could be counterproductive to truck driver safety and would also pre-empt the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from making changes if this political change proves unsafe,” the organization said.

What happens from here remains to be seen, but it remains as thorny an issue as ever, with DOT and FMCSA saying the restart is needed and is based on sound data and analysis in an effort to prevent or curtail driver fatigue and augment safety, while trucking interests maintaining the primary issue with the restart rules is that they push more trucks onto the road during daytime hours, which they said is a consequence the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration failed to fully analyze from a safety standpoint.