American Trucking Associations is alarmed about proposed changes in hours of service regulations it sees coming from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and today will launch a website to coordinate an industry response.

The association does not know what's in the proposal but expects that it will include a cutback in the 11-hour daily driving limit, an increase in the 34-hour restart provision and addition of at least one mandatory rest break during each shift, according to an ATA white paper..

As of last night the hours of service proposal was still being vetted by the White House of Management and Budget as part of the official review process. Publication is expected at any time.

ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said he is concerned that the agency does not have justification for making the changes he anticipates.

"To the extent there is an orchestrated effort to reduce our driver productivity, it's being driven principally by politics and not by any factual data or evidence that the current rule has been anything but safe," he said.

The ATA white paper explains further: "By further restricting driving and work time, the Obama administration will be simply supporting organized labor's effort to swell its ranks by forcing inefficiencies on the trucking industry which would force motor carriers to hire more drivers to haul the same amount of freight - drivers who the Teamsters would hope some day to organize."

Graves said the industry's safety performance under the current rule demonstrates that the rule works. "What we most hope to accomplish is to drive home the point about the successes that we've seen in safety performance on the nation's highways under the existing rule," he said. "We need legitimate justification for why this rule ought to be changed."

According to the white paper, the industry has shown significant safety gains in recent years. It says that truck-involved highway crash fatalities in 2009 were 33 percent down from 2003, when the current hours rule went into effect, and that crash rates are the lowest they have been since DOT began keeping track.

There are a variety of reasons for these gains, including the economic slowdown, but they do show that the current hours rule has not had a detrimental impact, said Dave Osiecki, senior vice president for policy and regulatory Affairs at ATA.

Driver Health as Justification?

ATA believes that DOT may cite improvements in driver health as justification for the changes in the rule. Such an approach would be "specious," the white paper contends.

"FMCSA has consistently gone on record over the past five years that the current HOS rules are having no deleterious effect on driver health," the white paper says. "Among other things, the agency has noted that drivers are not driving any more hours per week under the new rules than before, and that the enormous improvements in diesel exhaust reduction and other modern truck features drastically limit the health risks associated with driving."

The question of driver health was at the heart of the legal dispute that began when the agency first published the rule in 2003.

That year a coalition of safety advocacy groups led by Public Citizen filed suit against the rule on grounds that the agency had not shown that it took driver health into account. In 2004 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed with Public Citizen and rejected the rule.

In 2005 the agency issued a revised rule with only minor changes. In 2006 Public Citizen again filed suit, this time charging that the agency "paid only lip service" to driver health and did not address concerns about the 11-hour driving time and the 34-hour restart. In 2007 the court vacated those two provisions.

A year later the agency responded to that court order by reaffirming its commitment to the 11-hour and 34-hour provisions.

The slugfest entered its current round last year when, facing yet another suit by the safety advocacy coalition and the Teamsters, the Department of Transportation agreed to prepare a new proposed rule - the version that is now at OMB.

"Do Their Jobs and Defend the Rule"

It might be possible for FMCSA to come up with a version of the rule that will satisfy the safety advocacy community and the Teamsters, and still be acceptable to trucking - but that will be up to the members of ATA, Graves said.

"Until we see a substantial defense of changing the rule, we're going to do everything in our power to defend the current rule against change," he said. "I would encourage FMCSA and the Department of Justice to do their jobs and defend the rule. I mean, it is their rule and has been now since 2003."

He added that it would be a very pleasant development if the agency does not make the changes that the industry fears it is going to make. "I pledge to be the first person to praise FMCSA for taking a courageous but correct stand on hours of service."


More info: www.safedriverhours.com.