Editorial: End the Game
This Editorial appears in the Dec. 24-31 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
It’s more than time for the ping-pong game that has enveloped the years-long drive to revamp the work rules for America’s truck drivers to be over.
Perhaps if the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismisses the latest missive from certain political advocacy groups — Public Citizen and ilk — we can all get back to the business of delivering the goods that power the nation’s economy.
As John Hill, who runs the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, was explaining last week to a Senate subcommittee his agency’s rationale behind the changes it made to driver hours, the opposition groups were asking the court to toss the rules out, again.
We had hoped these groups would honor the evidence that Administrator Hill cited — that safety has clearly improved since the revised rules went into force — and turn their attentions to other matters.
They have dashed that hope. While it would have been a pleasant surprise had these groups moved to tone down the rhetoric and give the rules a fair chance to yield higher levels of safety, we were instead treated to another dose of the same old hysterical stuff.
According to the Department of Transportation, during 2006 truck-involved fatal crashes fell 230 from the previous year, fatalities in those crashes dropped 4.7% (the largest percentage decline in almost 15 years) and the fatal crash rate — 1.94 fatalities per 100 million miles driven — hit the lowest level in the history of DOT’s recordkeeping.
Rather than attacking Administrator Hill and FMCSA, the opposition groups ought to be nominating him for safety awards.
As one American Trucking Associationsp official told the Senate panel, “ATA supports the rules because, simply put, they are working.” Dave Osiecki, ATA’s vice president for safety, security and operations, said the revised regulations “were developed as a balanced set of rules . . . [and] provide greater opportunity for daily rest” by an increase in the minimum off-duty time and by cutting the maximum hours a driver can be on duty.
FMCSA, as is the case with all federal rulemakers, has to balance the goal of improving highway safety against the economic realities of the market. Ultimately, it’s the consumer who pays the costs of safety improvements. We believe the agency did an excellent job in crafting the new rules. And the results on the road back us up.
