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Carefully study economic impact of proposed HOS, ATA officials tells OMB

ARLINGTON, Va. — A senior official of the American Trucking Associations has encouraged the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget to carefully study  the economic impact of the Hours of Service Final Rule when it is submitted to the White House for final review prior to publication.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it anticipates releasing the new rule sometime in late October.

The Hours of Service rule was one of seven proposed rulemakings the Obama administration said in a recent letter to House Speaker John Boehner would have an economic impact of more than $1 billion.

Boehner had asked for more details on the proposed costs of the most expensive regulations under consideration by the administration, which has identified 219 proposed rules this year with a cost to the economy of more than $100 million.

The regulations were identified after the president issued an Executive Order earlier this year that imposes a series of new requirements designed to reduce regulatory burdens and costs.

 â€œLate last year, DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration proposed costly changes to truck drivers’ Hours of Service rules rules which, if finalized, would result in reduced wages for hundreds of thousands of drivers, significant administrative and efficiency costs for trucking companies, and most importantly, billions of dollars in lost productivity’” ATA Senior Vice President of Policy and Regulatory Affairs Dave Osiecki wrote in a Sept. 2 letter to Cass Sunstein. “These inefficiencies and costs would deal a serious and sustained blow to the huge ‘tangible goods’ economy that trucking supports, affecting not only shippers of freight, but ultimately consumers.”

While the FMCSA left open whether the new rule would allow for a 10- or 11-hour driving day, the agency said it preferred 10 hours. Figuring the reduction in driver hours as well as training costs, a Regulatory Impact Analysis put the additional yearly costs for the 10-hour option at $1.03 billion and the 11-hour option at $520 with the nine-hour option costing $2.3 billion more. The analysis noted $1 billion is only one-half of 1 percent of industry revenues.

 â€œDOT described its proposal as a means to further improve trucking’s highway safety record.  Yet, FMCSA’s own regulatory impact analysis showed that the proposal’s costs outweigh any potential crash reduction benefits,” Osiecki wrote.

The current hours-of-service rules, in place since 2004, he said, have allowed for trucking to move 70 percent of the nation's goods and achieve record low levels of crashes and fatalities.

“Just two days ago, on Aug. 31, 2011, FMCSA released even more evidence demonstrating that compliance with the current HOS rules is ‘strongly correlated with crash rates.’” Osiecki wrote. “In other words, carrier compliance with the current rules is directly linked to safer trucking operations.”

Two other DOT rules were included in the list sent to Boehner.

The White House said the proposed Electronic On-Board Recorders and Hours of Service Supporting Documents rule would have a $2 billion impact on the economy and the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 111, Rearview Mirrors, which the administration estimated would have a $0.6 billion-$1.5 billion impact on the economy, the White House said.

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