Key House Lawmakers Question HOS Rule

WASHINGTON — The top transportation appropriator in the House on April 3 called into question the benefits of a rule that limits work hours for truckers, in a hearing examining the Obama administration’s fiscal 2015 budget request for transportation agencies.

Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Committee Chairman Tom Latham (R-Iowa) told a group of transportation regulators that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours-of-service rule may not be achieving its intended safety goals.

He said the rule does not mandate that truckers catch up on their sleep during nonwork hours, and that could potentially introduce additional trucks during the day when there are more cars on the roadways.

“I think there’s a huge safety component by putting more trucks on the road during those peak times,” Latham said.

At the hearing, FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro downplayed the financial effects associated with the rule, focusing instead on the rule’s “larger safety component,” which she said was protecting drivers. Ferro also dismissed concerns that daytime truck traffic has increased since the rule went into effect.

“There is already  . . . commercial traffic in these early morning hours that was in place well before July of last year,” she said. “This is an industry that is incredibly unpredictable when it comes to demand because they’re moving warehouses. So how the different carriers shift their schedules is really up to them.”

Republicans have been pushing back on the HOS rule since it was implemented last summer. The regulation limits truckers’ work schedule to 70 hours a week and requires drivers take 34 hours off before resuming weekly work schedules.

Two House Republican authorizers — Rep. Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania and Rep. Tom Petri of Wisconsin, who each is a chairman of a key transportation subcommittee — this week called on government auditors to review the studies cited by the agency supporting the rule’s implementation.

“I continue to hear concerns from drivers and companies in Wisconsin, and around the country, about the impact of this 34-hour restart” provision within the HOS rule, Petri said.

Around the industry, a number of trucking interests say the rule offers little flexibility and drives up costs for companies. Safety groups say the regulation addresses concerns regarding drivers working long hours.

House lawmakers are expected to consider bills in the next few months that would provide funding for the federal government. The administration is requesting $669 million in fiscal 2015 for FMCSA.