Page 37 - ATR 1 2012 web 2

a Mixed Bag

New driving rules frustrate—but likely boost freight prices

By J.k. Jones

Contributing Writer
“siNce the rules apply to eVerybody,
If a good political compromise is there’s absolutely No eVideNce that says
indeed one in which no side gets exactly decreasiNg hours-of-serVice hurts the
what it wants, the latest try at regulat- truckiNg iNdustry.”
ing truckers’ driving time has a lot
going for it. There is a lot of dissatisfac-
tion, that is. —NoËl perry
But, if compromise is the best seNior coNsultaNt, ftr associates
and cheapest lawyer, as Robert Louis
Stevenson put it, then the Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration U.S. distribution network—which is to within the driver’s operating time. This
(FMCSA) may have saved itself from deliver freight at night to hundreds of newly required rest break has a practical
another round of litigation in the fed- thousands of distribution centers and impact beyond the required 30 minutes,
eral courts—or maybe not. warehouses. Dave Osiecki, ATA’s senior vice presi-
And since the FMCSA won’t imple- ATA president Bill Graves predicted dent for safety, pointed out.
ment most of the new rule until next the rule will increase morning rush “The government says it’s 30 min-
summer, the industry has plenty of time hour, frustrate other motorists and utes, but that 30 minutes will quickly
to prepare. increase the risk of crashes. “FMCSA is turn into 45 minutes or potentially an
But as the Arkansas Trucking assuring that every day as America is hour because the driver has to get off
Report went to press, rumors were commuting to work, thousands of truck the road and has to find a safe place to
flying that the American Trucking drivers will be joining them, creating park, then spend that 30 minutes rest-
Associations (ATA) will file a lawsuit in additional and unnecessary conges- ing, then get back up and out on the
federal court challenging the FMCSA’s tion and putting motorists and those road running again,” Osiecki said.
latest commercial driver hours-of-ser- professional drivers at greater risk,” “Once you understand how
vice rules, focusing on the way in which Graves said. “The largest percentage of things will change, then you’ll under-
the agency is changing what is called truck-involved crashes occurs between stand what you have to change,” he
the 34-hour restart rule for commercial 6 a.m. and noon, so this change not said. Additionally, Osiecki questioned
drivers. only effectively destroys the provision FMCSA’s explanation of the changes to
The ATA will litigate over changes of the current rule most cited by profes- the rule and “their limited understand-
to the 34-hour restart that it says would sional drivers as beneficial, but it will ing of how the changes will affect the
put more truck traffic onto the road- put more trucks on the road during the industry.”
ways during the morning rush hour. statistically riskiest time of the day.” “Did FMCSA really justify these
FMCSA will require all commercial Indeed, ATA member companies changes, and did they have enough data
drivers to take two periods of succes- and private carriers believe the two and analysis to justify these changes?”
sive nights off, between 1 a.m. and 5 nights off requirement may have unin- he asked. “We’re taking a hard look at
a.m. as part of a ‘restart’ period. On tended consequences that are counter- that.”
the surface, a casual observer might productive, not only to truck drivers Lane Kidd, president of the
surmise that truck drivers would like a who routinely work at night, but the Arkansas Trucking Association, agreed
few nights of rest. But by forcing this entire distribution system. citing the new rule as a continuing
schedule, the FMCSA is unwittingly A second problem focuses on a
disrupting a basic component of the new mandated 30 minute rest break 

arkansas truCking rePort | issue 1 2012 37