ATA Hails Hours-of-Service Deal

The American Trucking Associations on Tuesday issued a statement praising Congress for putting the brakes on an administration plan to curb truckers’ driving hours.

	More HOS Coverage
	Conferees Agree to Halt Hours Proposal (Oct. 3) ATA Press Release on Hours Deal (on Truckline) Congress Recesses Without Hours Deal (Sept. 29) Reports Grow of Deal on Trucker Hours Plan (Sept. 27)
	Shop Online
	Hours of Service Information Pack Alert Driver Book and Video Package

A House-Senate conference committee voted Tuesday to approve a transportation funding bill that will now go to both houses for approval. It includes language that prevents the Department of Transportation from implementing during fiscal 2001 its proposal to cut drivers’ hours of service in order to curb driver fatigue and accident rates.

The industry had forcefully argued that the reform plan would actually raise the risk of highway accidents by putting many more trucks on the roads, while sharply escalating truck company costs far above the DOT’s estimates for implementing its proposal.

“This is good news for the American motoring public, our motor carriers and their professional truck drivers who work hard every day to make our highways safer,” said Walter B. McCormick Jr., ATA’s president and chief executive officer.

He charged that the DOT plan “would have forced at least 100,000 more trucks on the nation’s highways during daylight hours and put less-experienced drivers behind the wheel” in order to move the same amount of freight.

ATA noted that the action by Congress “would allow DOT only to review its proposal and possibly issue a supplemental rule that will allow for further public comment and input. The legislation makes sure that DOT gives this vital proposal the time necessary not only to collect the necessary data but also to thoroughly review it.”

The trucking group explained that its industry had pushed “an intensive national grassroots education campaign” about the hours reform issue. A 50-state Trucking Executives Leadership Council was co-chaired by Donald Schneider of Schneider National and Gerald Detter of Con-Way Transportation Services, who criticized the DOT plan at agency hearings and in testimony before Congress.

“Congress has given us the opportunity to do the right thing for highway safety,” ATA’s McCormick said Tuesday. “It is now time to go back to the drawing board and produce a true science-based, hours-of-service reform plan that will improve highway safety and allow the trucking industry to efficiently meet the needs of the U.S. economy.”