Opinion: The Hours Won’t Fly By

By David Barnes

taff Writer

If pop music icon Warren Zevon were in the trucking business, he’d amend the lyrics to one of his more popular songs to read, “Send lawyers, guns and money — hours of service has hit the fan.”

In recent days, trucking executives, drivers, commercial vehicle enforcement officers and countless others have developed a “thousand-yard stare” from wading through the 270-page proposal by the Department of Transportation to update the rules governing the work and rest cycles of commercial drivers.

The massive document reads much like a Tom Clancy novel. Just when you feel hopelessly bogged down in some obscure bit of scientific and bureaucratic jargon, something jolts you upright in your seat.

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To give you an idea of how seriously people are taking the hours-of-service proposal, many safety enforcement officers attending the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s spring workshop in Tampa, Fla., cut short their nocturnal networking sessions in the hotel lounge in favor of downloading the document from DOT’s Web site — and reading it.

Non-verbal communication among participants at a National Private Truck Council session on the proposal last week was something to behold. Sighs, moans and groans were the most common reaction as NPTC Safety Director Jim Noble described what the federal government had in mind for trucking. Both Noble and NPTC lobbyist Matt Mlynarczyk urged NPTC members to convert their anxiety and anger into action. “Tell DOT what you think,” the two industry veterans urged the standing-room-only crowd.

Drivers already are exercising their constitutional right to complain, taking advantage of the Internet to tell DOT exactly what they think. Several dozen e-mail comments, most from drivers, were posted in the proposal’s docket by late last week. If history is any guide, DOT officials will have their hands full trying to sort through what will likely grow into a barrage of comment. A previous proposal to amend the hours-of-service regulations attracted nearly 68,000 comments to the docket in pre-Internet days.

American Trucking Associations is also doing its part to stimulate response. The group posted a summary on its own Web site, along with a sample letter and “talking points” for carrier executives to use in communicating with local media.

Trucking’s game plan is to delay publication of the final rule until next year, when a new administration takes over the wheel at the department. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater says he is determined to get the final rule out before his term expires Jan. 20. To that end, he said he will not extend the comment period past July 31. Both NPTC and CVSA plan to ask for more time. Even if their request is refused, precedent and practicality make the odds of getting a final rule on the books this year a long-shot.

Unless the highly dedicated rules-writers take the volumes of transcripts from the seven public hearings and texts of written comments with them to their beach houses or back porches in August, little will get done before Labor Day. Their edits must be reviewed by Julie A. Cirillo, the acting director of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, DOT’s lawyers and Slater himself before it goes back to the Office of Management and Budget at the White House for yet more review.

This activity will occur in the heat of the fall election season. Slater and other top political appointees will be taking time off to campaign for Vice President Al Gore. They will also be preparing the department’s fiscal 2002 budget request.

After the election, Transportation and OMB will be busy preparing for the presidential transition. If Gore wins, Slater and other top political appointees may be lobbying to keep their jobs. If Texas Gov. George W. Bush takes over the White House, all the Democratic political appointees will be busy job-hunting.

All the while, trucking will continue its effort to build support among the public and in Congress for its position. This is a battle that ATA began several years ago. Since 1997, the association has distributed public service announcements on how both truck and automobile drivers can avoid driving while tired. ATA also won several DOT contracts to conduct fatigue research, and sent its own hours-of-service proposal out for scientific review before making it public. “ATA has been in the forefront of trucking’s efforts to improve public awareness of the fatigue issue,” said Tim Lynch, a former ATA lobbyist who now heads the Motor Freight Carriers Association.

Lynch’s group also has been active in truck safety issues, working with the Teamsters union on the “No Zone” campaign to educate motorists on how to share the road with trucks.

While the for-hire trucking associations will play a vital role in the fatigue debate, it is private carriers who are poised to play a pivotal role. As NPTC Chairman Dan Smith pointed out, his members are both carriers and shippers, so they can speak authoritatively on the economic and practical effect the proposed changes in hours of service will have on both manufacturing and distribution.

The coming months promise to be very interesting.