Terrific momentum is building to derail hours-of-service (HOS) changes   

It is great to see our industry benefitting from the general backlash against over-burdensome regulation. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) wrote a letter to president Obama stating that the new HOS proposal would raise costs and hurt the U.S. economy and cited the tremendous record the trucking industry has already achieved in reducing accidents. This follows a September 23 warning by Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that his committee “will aggressively oversee any attempt by the [Department of Transportation] to impose new regulatory burdens on the trucking industry by making changes to the current [HOS] rules.”

We can’t rest easy though as FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro stated at the recent CSCMP annual conference in a session that I attended that she is not satisfied that the trucking industry is doing enough to reduce accidents, that driver fatigue is a major factor, and that widely accepted studies showing passenger vehicles at fault in most trucking accidents are not reliable. She stated that she was restricted from commenting on the proposed rule changes in the period immediately before the changes are announced, but seemed unconcerned about the economic costs of the increased regulation if there was some chance of saving lives. When asked by an audience member whether the safest course was to outlaw trucks in favor of bicycles pulling carts, she lashed out at 3PLs as being unwilling to participate in improving highway safety. Not her finest moment.