Hours of Service (HOS) rules changes expected by October 28 despite flawed new studies   

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in in the process of reviewing comments and reiterated that it is on track to issue final HOS rules by October 28. While there is no indication from FMCSA regarding its current view of the proposed changes, most observers believe that the final rules will eliminate one hour of daily driving time. The original deadline was July 26, but the agency realized it could not meet that date primarily due to four late and controversial studies on driver fatigue that the FMCSA hoped would bolster its case. The agency was obligated to re-open the comment period after the release of those studies. The push to reduce driving hours is led primarily by the Teamsters and the Public Citizen advocacy group that sued to overturn the 2003 HOS rules.

Regarding the four studies, Ronald R. Knipling, former head of FMCSA's research division and the first American to receive the Order of Merit from the International Road Transport Union for his work on truck safety, questioned the validity of the studies. Knipling criticized the sample of drivers, trucks, and crashes in the Penn State study and concluded "It would be erroneous and unwarranted to accept Penn State's principal findings and conclusions without extensive reanalysis, internal validation and external replication." Knipling' s conclusion on the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study was that "more probing and self-challenging analyses must be performed before [the] study['s] findings can be accepted as sound science." Regarding the study of Florida transit bus drivers Knipling pointed out that obviously the nature of work is far different for a transit driver and an over-the-road truck driver rendering any comparisons meaningless. For an excellent summary of the ATA and NIT League position on the flaws of the four added studies I refer you to Truckinginfo, the web site of Heavy Duty Trucking magazine.

The NIT League is right on the mark with their comment that "The study shows no appreciable increase in crash risk between the 10th and 11th driving hours, which would support a change to the current rule."

We don't need costly regulations that do little or nothing to improve highway safety.