Editorial: Victorious — With a Lot More Work to Do

Trucking is celebrating its great victory in the hours-of-service debate, in which Congress delayed implementation of any new proposal for at least a year, thereby ordering the Department of Transportation back to the drawing boards.

And the industry deserves the break. At some point the ill-conceived proposal seemed headed for approval, posing a severe threat to trucking’s bottom line.

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	Conferees Agree to Halt Hours Proposal (Oct. 3) ATA Press Release on Hours Deal (on Truckline) Carriers Show Feds How Much Hours Proposal Would Cost (Oct. 2) Congress Recesses Without Hours Deal (Sept. 29)
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But while all indications are that Congress will complete its work this week and that President Clinton will sign the legislation, the battle is far from over.

After a few days of reveling in our hard-fought victory, spearheaded by American Trucking Associations’ efforts, trucking needs to begin the task of helping DOT shape a new hours-of-service proposal that both improves productivity and safety.

Lost in the sighs of relief, now that DOT’s unacceptable plan has been stopped, is that trucking is still left chafing under 63-year-old rules that hurt the industry’s ability to move the nation’s economy and make a living doing it.

Rules that made sense when Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House and when U.S. 1 was the national superhighway don’t have much relevance today.

We need to maintain our united effort to get new rules implemented. We need to keep the pressure on DOT to continue the effort on work-rules reform, but with a rule that makes sense and boosts both highway safety and economic viability.

Trucking’s task may get a little easier after the November federal elections — because one way or the other, we can expect new leadership at DOT.

These new officials may find it easier to work with trucking and the other interested parties in crafting a new proposal because they presumably won’t feel the need to try and salvage the failed plan.

We need to start from scratch in writing the new rule, taking into account the hundreds of hours of testimony offered by many of the most qualified witnesses who spent the time appearing before DOT’s circuit of hearings and roundtables.

ATA has already stated that if a satisfactory new rule can be agreed upon, it would join DOT in getting Congress to waive the one-year moratorium.

Let’s get the elections over with and then let’s sit down and get an effective hours-of-service proposal written and implemented.