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NEWS IN BRIEF

HOURS OF SERVICE 34-HOUR Safety Administration. If the agency’s information (CSA SMS rankings) will
RESTART ISSUE STILL STALLED study determines 2011 rules are safer be posted back up,” he continued.
The U.S. House Appropriations for fatigued drivers, then such rules The FAST Act required the Federal
Committee voted in May to send the would take effect permanently, but with Motor Carrier Safety Administration
full House a bill that would permanent- a new 73-hour limit on weekly hours. to pull CSA SMS rankings from public
ly restore 2011 regulations pertaining If the House passes its transpor- view to correct the flaws in the pro-
to the 34-hour restart provisions of the tation funding bill, the two versions gram’s data well and the methods used
hours of service requirements. would go to conference to iron out the to calculate carriers’ scores. The result-
differences. Industry advocates, includ- ing flawed scores were available for
ing the Arkansas Trucking Association, third parties like shippers, brokers and
are working closely with all members of insurers to view and make determina-
our delegation in support of the House tions about carriers and their crash risk,
language on hours of service. in spite of the program’s seeming dis-
connect with crash risk.
CSA SCORES LIKELY TO REMAIN Congress also directed the agency
OFFLINE FOR TWO YEARS to work with the National Academies of
Transportation Secretary Science and other government account-
Anthony Foxx told a Senate panel that ability agencies to work with FMCSA
Compliance, Safety, Accountability car- to develop a plan to reform the system
rier ranking system changes will take before the agency can bring the scores
about two years to complete, and the back to public view.
industry shouldn’t expect to see CSA
scores—the percentile rankings in the GOVERNOR SIGNS ARKANSAS
CSA Safety Measurement System’s seven HIGHWAY PLAN INTO LAW
The provisions would revert restart BASICs — return to public view until The Legislature’s special session
rules to those in effect in December those changes have been made. on highways ended with Gov. Asa
2011. A 34-hour restart would not be Hutchinson signing a highway fund-
required to include the two 1 a.m. to ing plan into law that will raise nearly
5 a.m. periods, and its use would not be $50 million for the state’s highways in
limited to once a week. The 30-minute the coming year and qualify the state
break requirement would still be in to receive an additional $200 million
effect, however, and would be the lone annually in federal matching highway
remaining element of the hours of ser- funds.
vice changes that went into effect July “Based on our preliminary assess- The plan utilizes $40 million from
2013. ment, it’s going to take a while to do Arkansas’s surplus, $1.5 million invest-
The House’s hours reform differs the revised analysis,” Foxx said. The ment returns and ends a requirement
from an earlier proposal passed by the changes in the CSA score methodology that $8.4 million from a half-cent sales
full Senate. The Senate bill changes were required in Congress’ 2015 FAST tax for roads go toward a fund for con-
are contingent upon the outcome of a Act bill. stitutional officers.
pending released study currently being “We expect it to take a year or two, After this year, $20 million in
conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier probably more like two, before that 

ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 3 2016 11