Editorial: Wake Up, Smell Coffee, Send Letter

Good morning trucking industry. It’s time to put our collective mouths in gear and officially let the Department of Transportation know what we think about its proposed revisions to the hours-of-service rules.

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The publication of the formal proposal in the Federal Register May 2 officially started the clock ticking on the 90-day comment period, and we need to make sure our voices are heard.

To its credit, DOT is making it very simple for people to comment: You can drop a letter in the mail or you can send an e-mail to the DOT docket.

The department is also holding seven public hearings, beginning May 31 in Washington, D.C. The other sessions will be held in Atlanta, Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Mo., Los Angeles and Hartford, Conn.

If you are worried about the impact the proposed changes in the regulations would have on your operations, let DOT know. Also, DOT wants numbers. Don’t just state your opinion; do your homework. No one knows how the rules could affect your business better than you do.

Ernie Sebert, senior vice president of Cardinal Logistics in Charlotte, N.C., said he is going to go over his transportation contracts line by line, figure out where his costs will increase and lay it all out for the government officials who have not had to run a trucking company.

It’s a daunting task trying to assess the impact this proposal will have on the truck and bus industry, and it will be difficult to complete the task in the allotted time. But it’s an effort worth making.

Several groups, including the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and the National Private Truck Council, are on record supporting an extension of the comment period. That’s a wise move. While DOT understandably wants to move this rule forward, it is patently unfair to take nearly three years to develop such an important regulation and then give the affected parties only three months to figure out what it means.

The department should take the following actions:

First, it should extend the comment period until the fall, giving everyone a full six months to review the massive proposal.

After the affected parties have had a chance to wade through the proposal, DOT should schedule a series of explanatory sessions around the country to explain the proposal in terms that carriers, drivers and the public can understand.

Finally, the department should sit down with some real, live trucking executives, drivers and law enforcement officers and see if this rule can really achieve its stated purpose.