Transportation Department, ATA Spar Over Meaning of Report by Congressional Agency
A Government Accountability Office report on statistical methodology at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration generated a celebration by Department of Transportation officials and charges of excessive spin control by American Trucking Associations.
The July 29 report from GAO, a congressional agency, was sent to Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and to Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), chairwoman of a Senate subcommittee that deals with truck safety. The two panels asked GAO to examine an FMCSA report from 2014 that studied safety and the rule for truck driver hours of service.
GAO gave a mixed report, saying that FMCSA “followed most generally accepted research standards,” but also that the DOT agency “did not completely meet certain research standards such as reporting limitations and linking the conclusions to the results.”
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx welcomed the report, saying that it “provides further evidence that the changes FMCSA made to the HOS rules improve highway safety by saving lives and lowering the risk of driver fatigue.”
“This reinforces our belief that these life-saving measures are critical to keeping people safe on the roads. We value the GAO’s independent review and will use their recommendations to further strengthen our department’s research to ensure that we have the best data available to keep our roads safe,” Foxx said in a July 30 statement.
ATA responded July 31, saying the DOT statement ignored “the bulk of the Government Accountability Office’s report on the agency’s 2013 hours-of-service changes, choosing instead to cherry-pick a handful of points in a desperate effort to influence lawmakers.”
“It is unfortunate that rather than present an accurate and balanced characterization of the GAO report, FMCSA is once again living in ‘Spin City,’ ” said Dave Osiecki, ATA's chief of national advocacy.
From July 2013 into December 2014, nearly 18 months, FMCSA enforced a version of HOS that altered the rule’s restart provision. The change proved to be a matter of great contention and in December Congress ordered FMCSA to return to the older version of restart that existed in June 2013.
