After nearly a year and a half of asking Congress for it, the trucking industry got its wish Tuesday evening: A potential rollback of some of the more restrictive elements of FMCSA’s 2013-implemented hours-of-service rule for truck operators.
Congress likely will send a bill to the White House in the coming days that includes a provision that will put a stay on enforcement of two key elements of the 2013 rule: The requirement that a driver’s 34-hour restart include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods and the provision limiting the use of the restart to one time per week. The suspension of enforcement will last at least until Sept. 30, 2015
If the $1.1 trillion spending bill — which prevents a government shutdown and funds most government departments through next September — passes both chambers of Congress and President Obama signs the bill into law, enforcement of those provisions shall be halted immediately, according to the bill.
The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, as the bill is called, was produced by the House Appropriations Committee Tuesday night, and it has received praise from the Senate Appropriations committee, too.
Large omnibus spending bill is expected to be unveiled early this week, and it’s expected to include the so-called Collins Amendment (introduced earlier this year) as a bill “rider.”
The rider, deemed to be a controversial one for lawmakers working on the bill, would suspend the requirement that a truck operator’s hours restart include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods. It also would remove the once-per-week limit of the use of the restart.
Major trucking groups like the American Trucking Associations, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the Truckload Carriers Association and trucking associations in all 50 states — along with dozens of other industry associations, says ATA — support the inclusion and passage of the Collins Amendment in the omnibus plan
Department of Transportation head Anthony Foxx, however, issued a letter of his own this week to Congress asking them not to include the Collins Amendment in the bill. The restart provisions, he writes, were “developed based on sound data and analysis. The evidence clearly shows that truck drivers are better rested and more alert after two nights of sleep than one night.”
ATA, however, says the amendment would give the industry “needed relief from unjustified and risk-raising regulations.”
“This isn’t a rider being added in the middle of the night at the 11th hour as some would have the public believe. This reasonable solution allows the government to do the research it should have done ahead of time and gives the industry the flexibility thousands of fleets and millions of drivers are pleading for,” Graves said.
Likewise, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is sending letters to members of Congress drumming up support for passage of the bill with the restart rollback included.
OOIDA notes in its letter that in a membership survey conducted last year, 46 percent of respondents said they felt more fatigued since the new rules took effect in July 2013 and 65 percent said they were earning less money
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