ATA files hours of service stay request

ATA files hours of service stay request The American Trucking Association last week filed a motion asking a U.S. Court of Appeals to issue an eight-month stay of the court's July decision vacating the 11-hour daily driving limit and 34-hour restart provisions of the trucking hours of service regulations.
   The stay, if granted, would keep the regulations in place pending further government review. In the filing, the ATA argues that the temporary eight-month stay would allow the trucking industry more time to deal with adjusting to the new regulations.
   “The trucking industry and its customers could not instantaneously shift to an hours of service regime with a different daily driving limit and without the 34-hour restart. Rather, such a conversion would require months of preparation,” the filing said.
   The filing also cited that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's July decision eliminating the two regulations that helped reinstitute the 2005 hours of service rules which introduced, according to the ATA, numerous inefficiencies to the system.
   Friday's move would also provide more time for the federal government to correct problems with the two regulations found earlier by the court. In reaching the July 24 decision, the court did not rule on the validity or safety issues of the two regulations, but cited procedural errors made during their creation. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is completing a new round of regulation processes for the 11- and 34-hour regulations, which would solve the court-cited procedural errors.
   Last week the ATA asked the FMCSA to administratively keep the 11-hour and 34-hour provisions in place, but FMCSA officials took no action.