The Teamsters, Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, and the Truck Safety Coalition have again attacked federal hours of service rules in court.

The safety groups asked an appeals court today to review what they call "a dangerous Bush-era regulation that increased the amount of time truck drivers can spend behind the wheel."

The groups also sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking him to begin work on a new regulation that would reduce truck crashes caused by fatigue.

"We have taken this action with the conviction, based on research and scientific data, that longer driving and working hours are unsafe and promote driver fatigue," the letter said.

The rule, which took effect in 2003, has twice before been challenged in court by safety groups. The regulations were modified somewhat following the first challenge, but the revised rule was challenged again in 2005.

In July 2007, the court remanded the hours of service rules to FMCSA, ruling that the agency must provide better explanations of its justifications for adopting the controversial 11-hour drive time and 34-hour restart provisions. Many in the trucking industry interpreted that decision as "procedural," something the agency could fix fairly easily.

In December 2007, FMCSA announced that it was keeping the 11-hour and the 34-hour provisions in an Interim Final Rule. In January 2008, a federal appeals court denied Public Citizen's request to invalidate that interim rule. The final rule was unveiled late last year and went into effect in the final days of the Bush administration.

The ongoing challenge asserts that the hours of service rule "allows truck drivers to drive for 11 hours, one more hour than they were allowed before the 2003 rule. It allows them to drive as many as 77 hours in seven days or 88 hours in eight days, over 25 percent more than previously."

"It is illogical and unacceptable that the prior Administration's solution to truck driver fatigue was longer working and driving hours, said Jackie Gillan, vice president for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. "Public health and safety is at stake and there needs to be a new rule."

But In unveiling the Final Rule late last year, FMCSA Administrator John Hill emphasized, "These rules are crafted to match what we know about drivers' circadian rhythms and the real world work environment truckers face every day."

See "FMCSA Announces Final HOS Rule," 11/19/2008.