House GOP Leadership Urges Obama to Withdraw Proposed HOS Changes

Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have asked President Obama to withdraw the administration’s proposed changes to the hours-of-service rules for commercial drivers.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in an Oct. 5 letter to Obama that withdrawing the proposed changes is an “opportunity to avoid adding another $1 billion in regulatory burden” to the economy and to small businesses.

The Federal Motor Carrier Administration is expected to unveil the new HOS rule by Oct. 28, and it could include reducing driving time to 10 hours from 11 hours.

“Sounds like they’re raising the stakes a bit, certainly,” Fred McLuckie, legislative director for the Teamsters Union, said of the leadership’s letter.

“They’re trying to interfere with a settlement that was agreed to by the Justice Department and the parties involved,” McLuckie said. The Teamsters have pressed for the rules changes.

Boehner and Cantor reiterated the president’s previous pledge that he was committed to “eliminating excessive and unjustified burdens on small businesses, and to ensuring that regulations are designed with careful consideration of their effects.”

Ninety-five percent of all trucking companies can be classified as small businesses under the federal government’s criteria and 90% of carriers operate five or fewer trucks, the Republican leaders said.

The Boehner-Cantor letter follows a Sept. 23 letter to Obama from Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.), and other subcommittee and committee chairmen, who said they would work to block any change in the HOS rules (10-3, p. 1).

FMCSA’s latest proposal, announced on Dec. 23, grew out of a court settlement between FMCSA and advocacy groups that include labor unions and highway safety advocates who want to reduce driver hours.

Besides reducing driving time, the proposed rule would change drivers’ current ability to restart their weekly work cycle with a 34-hour rest period. That would in effect reduce the total work cycle because drivers would be required to take two six-hour rest periods between midnight and 6 a.m.

Under the proposed rule changes, the total on-duty time allowed would be reduced to 13 hours because drivers would be required to have two 30-minute rest breaks. The allowable on duty time is currently 14 hours.

FMCSA has not said it would reduce the driving hours to 10 but has said it is leaning in that direction.

Boehner and Cantor said in their letter, however, that the current HOS rules have “led to record low levels of crashes and fatalities involving trucks.”

The proposed changes, they said, would put more trucks on the road, “add to the cost of transporting goods, delay delivery times and increase congestion and traffic on the highways.”

American Trucking Associations spokesman Sean McNally said the federation was pleased that Boehner and Cantor had weighed in on the “ill-advised” hours-of-service proposal.

“There’s a growing consensus that by any objective measure, the current rules are working and this change is being pushed by groups for reasons other than improving safety,” McNally said.

ATA is urging the Obama administration to listen to the lawmakers and “the chorus of law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders and put the brakes on this unnecessary change,” McNally said.