A bipartisan group of 51 House members sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, criticizing the latest changes to the 34-hour restart provision of the hours-of-service rule for truck drivers and asking for a timeline for the completion of a study of those changes, the lawmakers said Sept. 3.
Four congressmen, led by Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), started circulating the letter in late August to gather signatures. They sent the letter Aug. 29, they said.
Congress asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last year to complete a field study on the effects of the restart changes by March of this year, a deadline that FMCSA missed. Despite not completing the study, the agency began enforcing the new HOS rule July 1.
“These rules have real-world implications for small businesses, workers and consumers,” Hanna said in a Sept. 3 statement. The Department of Transportation “should commit to a timeline for completing the study and submitting its report to Congress so that lawmakers can properly consider the costs and benefits of the rule and whether or not it makes sense moving forward.”
Under the new rule, truck drivers can only use the 34-hour restart to reset their weekly driving limits once per week, and it must include two periods from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.
FMCSA spokesman Duane DeBruyne said the agency completed data collection for the field study in July, and it expects to release a report on the study later this year.
