Efforts to amend last year’s hours-of-service (HOS) rules have faced opposition, but Philip L. Byrd, Sr., chairman of the American Trucking Associations, says the ATA is “bound and determined to bring about positive change” in federal trucking regulations.
Byrd reminded attendees the annual McLeod Software user conference in Washington that rolling back the restrictions on truck drivers’ ability to use a 34-hour restart to begin a new work week is still a top priority.
“We have not left any stone unturned in trying to stop the restart changes,” said Byrd, president and CEO of Bulldog Hiway Express in Charleston, S.C.
Because the rules require drivers to include two consecutive 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods within a “restart” between work weeks, more drivers are on the road at 5 a.m., at the start of rush hour, putting more drivers at risk.
Byrd reported that former FMSCA president Anne Ferro said in a meeting that regulators “certainly understand the restart (change) has had an unintended negative impact on [the] industry.” However, the FMSCA has no plan to address that negative impact — a productivity loss of 3 to 5 percent.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, introduced legislation that would suspend the new 34-hour restart requirement for a year and require the FMCSA to study the impact of the restart changes on truck operations, highway safety and driver health. Two days after the amendment to a federal appropriations bill passed a Senate appropriations committee in June, a Walmart truck was involved in a crash killing and injuring two high profile comedians. The crash and its media coverage triggered the truck driver fatigue debate all over again.
The Senate has not yet voted on the amendment, but it could still be revived, Byrd said. “We’re not letting go of that.”
