Editorial: Judging the HOS Rule, Again
he latest version of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s driver hours-of-service rules is now in the hands of three federal appellate judges.
And history, plus the tenor of the Dec. 4 argument before the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, provides more than enough justification for the trucking industry to be concerned about the outcome of this case.
This court — although not these same judges — overturned the previous version of FMCSA’s rewrite of the work rules for commercial vehicle drivers in the United States in 2004. The court found that the agency had not taken enough interest in determining the effect of the changes on the health of drivers.
After the revision was overturned, FMCSA went back to the drawing board, and issued its latest version in late August 2005. The agency left much of the original revision intact, but altered the regulations involving sleeper berths to make them more inflexible.
While far from perfect, the trucking industry has generally found the new HOS rules workable. While several attempts are under way to fine tune it, the overall regulation was considered a success, once fleets and shippers understood its details.
Fleets are working hard to improve productivity in order to get the most out of the shorter workday for drivers, and many have focused on getting shippers to sharply reduce delays drivers face in loading and unloading.
This has helped improve the utilization of tractors and trailers, which reduces the sting of productivity lost to the new rules.
But now the industry faces the possibility that the regulations will be revised once again, or replaced with something new.
The appeals court judges seemed disturbed by some of FMCSA’s procedures, and especially cited the agency’s failure to show how it had determined the gains in productivity the rules would provide and the effect longer driving hours might have on the fatigue level of drivers.
The drive to update the ancient driver work rules has been going on for more than two decades. It’s certainly time for a final decision that allows the nation’s trucking industry to continue to provide the best freight transportation service in the world.
This editorial appears in the Dec. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.