DOT to reconsider hours of service rule

DOT to reconsider hours of service rule    The U.S. Department of Transportation and its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Monday agreed to revisit rules on hours of service for truck drivers to resolve a lawsuit by safety advocacy groups and the Teamsters union.
   The agreement filed in federal court gives the agency nine months to review its current rule and submit its proposal to the White House, and up to 21 months to issue a new final rule to replace the current one. The existing rule governing how much time drivers can spend behind the wheel before resting will remain in effect until then.
   The hours-of-service rule allows drivers of commercial vehicles to drive up to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty. The rule also has a 14-hour maximum workday limit so that drivers have to clock off even if they haven't driven all 11 of their allowed hours. And drivers must take a 34-hour break after being on the job seven or eight consecutive days.
   The current rule went into effect in 2008 after a previous rulemaking by the Bush administration was blocked by a federal court for not taking into account the full range of scientific information related to driver fatigue and the effect of the rule on driver health. The courts also vacated the rule in 2004. The Bush administration made minor adjustments and reinstated the rule in each case.
   The trucking industry objected to the original changes five years ago, which added an extra hour to the maximum time behind the wheel but shortened the overall work day and the restart period, but has since adjusted to and supports the current rule.

Graves

   'Safety in the trucking industry has greatly improved while operating under the current hours-of-service rules,' American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said in a statement. 'Over the past five years we've seen a strong decline in truck-related crashes on our nation's highways.'
   The trade association points to federal crash statistics that show the number of truck-related fatalities has decreased 19 percent since the new HOS rules went into effect in 2004 while the number of trucks and miles driven increased.
   In March, Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition and the Teamsters filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington challenging the existing hours-of-service rule for the third time.
   The groups claim the new rules allow truck drivers to spend up to 17 more hours driving each week than previously allowed.
   'We are pleased that the government has decided to take seriously its responsibility to protect truck drivers and the public from unsafe driving conditions instead of bending to the interests of the trucking industry,' Greg Beck, the Public Citizen lawyer handling the case, said in a statement.