Ferro plans to keep fighting for a reduction in driving hours   

Anne Ferro, head of the FMCSA, is defending the new 34-hour restart provisions of the hours-of-service rules and plans to continue conducting studies in an attempt to find scientific data to support her desire to reduce driving hours from 11 to 10. The restart provisions, requiring two consecutive days of rest between 1 AM and 5 AM, will not impact some fleets at all while some highly-engineered dedicated fleets expect a 10-12% loss of productivity. A number of industry experts are predicting about a 3% overall decline in driver productivity. While that may seem small, with over 3 million truck drivers in the industry it means that the industry will need to come up with an extra 100,000 drivers on top of the additional drivers required as the economy recovers and the need to replace retiring drivers. Does anyone think that convincing an extra 100,000 people to become truck drivers will improve safety on our highways?

Even more troubling is Ms. Ferro’s statement regarding driving hours. “We stated a clear preference for 10 hours, based on analysis and research we had in our hands at the time. Working through the process and reaching the final product of a final rule, we again derived a rule — that based on available science, on available data and on available research — with that driving purpose of advancing safety outcomes.” Ms. Ferro is not giving up the fight for fewer driving hours. The agency plans to collect and examine driver log data in an attempt to prove that the 11th driving hour is more highly associated with accidents.

The ATA has not decided whether it will take the FMCSA to court over the revised rules. Since it is clear the FMCSA intends to keep pushing for more restrictive hours-of-service rules beyond what have just been released, I urge the ATA to not sit back and play prevent defense, but to take a stand and fight the restart provision. There is no science to indicate that the restart provision will improve safety, and common sense indicates that an extra 100,000 new drivers and a lot more trucks hitting the road at 5 AM are not in the best interests of highway safety.