In The News

Groups challenge rule setting working hours for truck drivers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Once again, the hours of service (HOS) rule for truck drivers is being challenged by a coalition that contends the federal government should reconsider “a seriously flawed regulation that can compel professional truck drivers to work and drive 19th century sweatshop hours.”

The four organizations — Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Public Citizen, the Truck Safety Coalition and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — filed a petition for reconsideration Thursday with the administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

Calling the Nov. 19 publication a “midnight” final rule, the groups contend the FMCSA ignored two court decisions that have been issued since 2003.

The first decision found that the agency had not adequately taken driver health into consideration. The second decision vacated the two provisions of FMCSA’s revised 2005 final rule that raised the limits for daily and weekly driving and on-duty hours. Although courts have twice ordered the agency to reconsider the rule on technical grounds, FMCSA has re-issued virtually the same rule after each court order, according to the petitioners.

The latest final rule, which retains the pre-existing 11-hour driving limit and the 34-hour restart provision, will take effect on Jan. 19.

“Under this rule, companies can force interstate truck drivers to work and drive grueling hours that are unheard of in other U.S. workplaces in the 21st century,” said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen and former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “These trucks are rolling sweatshops.”

Others involved in the petition voiced similar objections.

“FMCSA simply disregarded scores of studies conducted over more than 30 years showing that this incredibly demanding working and driving schedule will lead to exhausted truck drivers who literally can fall asleep at the wheels of their rigs,” said Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “This final rule is utterly irresponsible and has been issued in open defiance of the court’s findings in back-to-back decisions.”

An FMCSA spokesman said late Thursday that the agency had yet to receive the petition, and would comment once it had been reviewed.

The petition asks FMCSA to reconsider the regulation based on numerous errors and misrepresentations of research findings clearly showing that much longer working and driving hours will inevitably produce severely fatigued drivers who also can suffer serious health problems from excessively long working hours.

“Congress created FMCSA on Jan. 1, 2000, to make trucking safer, but the Bush administration used the agency to make it more dangerous,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “FMCSA was so eager to carry water for the trucking industry that it ignored mountains of scientific evidence that driving longer hours increases the risk of a crash.”

Barb Kampbell of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at [email protected].