The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has concluded the data gathering portion of the Congressionally required study on 2013’s hours of service rule and has began the data analyzing phase, said the Truckload Carriers Association’s David Heller in a regulatory update webinar held Tuesday, the latest in TCA’s Truckload Academy series.
Heller, TCA’s director of safety and policy, said he expects FMCSA to reveal the data and its conclusions drawn from that data in December. Carriers can continue to operate under the “restart rollback” rules — pre-July 2013 rules, essentially — until FMCSA produces the results of its study. “The study should hopefully reveal data we’ve long talked about,” he said, referring to industry-wide challenges against FMCSA’s assertions that the 2013 rules result in better rested and therefore safer drivers.
Also, said Heller, the agency’s hours of service exemption frenzy of late show the rule is “not a one-size fits all regulation,” pointing to the 30-minute break requirement of 2013’s rules as one of the main culprits. “The exemptions are running rampant,” he said.
Bee haulers, livestock haulers, concrete haulers, loggers, heavy haulers and others have successfully petitioned the agency for waivers of the 30-minute break requirement, as the rule does not suit their operations, Heller said, a sign hours of service regulations need to be restructured, he said.
“Everybody can relate to operating under a rule that doesn’t make sense,” he said. “We’re looking for an [hours of service] rule that makes sense and [adheres] to [the trucking industry’s] advice on how to write this rule. The removal of a 34-hour restart would be excellent. There’s no need for it. We can already see the 30-minute break was not well designed for this industry.”
One of the industry’s biggest challenges in scoring a more sensible hours rule, he said, is the perception of those outside the industry that truck operators drive 80 hours a week each week — an over exaggeration pushed by what Heller calls “pseudo-safety advocates.”
“The 11-hour drive time everybody thinks we enjoy is just not the case,” he said.
