Shippers, carriers want hours of service hearing

Shippers, carriers want hours of service hearing    Shippers and trucking companies are asking Congress to hold a hearing on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's newly proposed hours of service regulations.
   In a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, they say the proposal “would have a substantial, negative impact on productivity and the economy. Trucking companies, and private carriers with fleets, would need to put additional trucks and drivers on the road to deliver the same amount of freight, adding to final product costs and increasing congestion on the nation's already clogged highways.”
   The letter is signed by groups such as the American Trucking Associations, National Industrial Transportation League, National Retail Federation and individual companies such as Fed Ex and UPS.
   They say the FMCSA proposal “ignores the simple fact that the trucking industry's safety performance has improved at an unprecedented rate while operating under the current hours of service regulations since they became effective in 2004. Both the number and rate of fatal and injury accidents involving large trucks have declined by more than one-third, and are now at their lowest levels in recorded history.”
   The letter also raises questions about the cost-benefit analysis supporting the proposal, saying that on two prior occasions, the FMCSA estimated that similar changes would cost the U.S. economy $2.2 billion, inclusive of safety benefits, and in the new proposed rule, changed its methodology for estimating both the benefits and costs of changes to the hours of service rule, effectively decreasing estimated annual costs by $1.5 billion, and increasing estimated annual benefits by $1.1 billion in order to produce a positive benefit-cost ratio.