New court challenge to truckers’ hours-of-service rule
March 13, 2009 by Fred HosierPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Lawsuits, Transportation safety
Here we go again: Four groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court asking that hours-of-service rules for commercial motor vehicle drivers be thrown out.
The same four groups successfully filed court challenges against the rules in 2003 and 2005.
In each case, the D.C. Circuit Court told the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to justify the reasoning behind its rules. Each time, FMCSA re-issued the same rules.
The groups — Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Truck Safety Coalition, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — oppose two aspects of the HOS rules:
- the increase from 10 to 11 hours of permissible consecutive driving, and
- the provision that enables commercial drivers to restart their weekly on-duty limits after taking 34 consecutive hours off.
In a letter to Secretary of Transportation Raymond LaHood, the groups say they filed the lawsuit because “longer driving and working hours are unsafe and promote driver fatigue.”
They cite a 2008 survey by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that more commercial drivers operate their vehicles when sleepy and report higher incidents of falling asleep at the wheel now than under the previous HOS rule.
What if the court throws out the HOS rules again? The old rules (10 hours of consecutive driving, no 34-hour restart) would go into effect until FMCSA takes action.
And what FMCSA does could be different this time because of the change from the Bush to the Obama administration.
Tags: commercial motor vehicle drivers, FMCSA, hours of service
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March 16th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Stats already show the new hours of service have decresed deaths on the highways. Drivers and companies have made the transition and all seem to like it now. I do not know why the teamsters are challenging the rule-their old fashion greed school of thought-their drivers should make more money. Under the old system with a 8 hour break-their driver were lucky to get 5 hours of rest in 8 hours. Once arriving at the terminal until time to get back to the terminal, required about 1.5 hours of travel to motel, check-in, meals and etc. Seems like the 10 hours rule permits more rest.
Over the road drivers whom used the old system drove more fatigued under that system than they do under the present hours of service.
Seems like a dramatic improvement to me. Some folks just do not have anthing else to fight about.
March 16th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
As Joe said, safety and accident rates have been improving among truckers for several years. Safety is not the concern of the unions - making more money is. The other groups are anti-capitalist, anti free enterprise leftist-based groups whose sole purpose is to destroy industry and commerce in the US. Check their boards and you’ll see where these people’s politics reside. They now think they have a socialist ear in Nobama and Congress and will do all they can to disrupt our free enterprise system.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Being an ltl carrier, the only problem we have is the fact our drivers are no longer able to break up their driving with sleeper birth time. It’s 14 hours from the time they go on duty. We have delivery locations that only receive at 3rd shift, which makes it difficult for an ltl driver to get the required 10 off. The old rules allowed for 2 hours of sleeper birth. I think 4 minimum would be a better adjustment and extend the 14 hour clock by that only, for a maximum of 18 hours. Then require the 10 hour shutdown. I agree with Joe about the 8 hours. I really don’t know of anybody that can climb out of a driver seat and go straight to sleep for 8 hours. You need wind down time and wake up time. The 34 hour restart does accomodate the family driver.
March 17th, 2009 at 10:02 am
The new hours of service rules force a driver to operate while fatigued and tired. Under the old rules you were allowed to stop your HOS for a rest break if you needed to. The rules now require the 14 hour clock to continue to run once started. For example, if I have just completed my 10 hour break (and did not rest well) I may feel the need to have a 2 hour nap 4 or 5 hours into my shift. Because I will lose those 2 hours from my allowed day, I am more likely to continue driving to maximize my productivity.
March 17th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Looks like Lori and I are on the same page.
March 17th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
The new system seems to work very well, especially with the 34 hr restart. Also a driver can still use a split sleeper berth. I say leave it alone -seems like the people trying to change this have never driven a truck or had to try and get a job done using the existing rules and comply with receiver hours etc.