FMCSA Rejects Pleas To Ease New Hours Of Service Rule
The move sends a strong signal that the rules will go into effect as written. Whether they will be on schedule remains to be seen.
Oliver B.Patton
Washington Editor
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rejected bids by private carriers, including the giant Wal-Mart Stores, to get more flexibility in the new hours of service rules.
The move sends a strong signal that the rules will go into effect as written. Whether they will be on schedule remains to be seen. They are supposed to take effect at the beginning of next January, but a coalition of safety advocates has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for a review.
Wal-Mart had asked the safety agency to back off the requirement that a driver stop driving 14 hours after coming on duty. The agency replied that it could not because the change would not be consistent with the core goals of the new rules, including improved safety, more opportunity for rest and scheduling that is closer to a 24-hour cycle.
The new rule stops driving time 14 hours from when the workday began, no matter how the time is logged. This is a significant change from the current rule, under which a driver may not drive after 15 hours logged as "on duty" - but "off-duty" time for meals or other breaks is not part of the calculation.
Wal-Mart is less concerned about the loss of an hour than it is about the stricter method of counting time - a change that would reduce driver productivity by about 6%, the company said.
The safety agency said that under the current rule, drivers may be working 18 hours or longer after coming on duty. "In many cases these drivers would be doing so without a significant opportunity for restorative rest," said FMCSA Administrator Annette Sandberg in a letter to Wal-Mart.
"The new rule was carefully designed to take into account our data that the 14-hour limit could not be altered or replaced without undermining the very benefits in fatigue-reduction the new rule seeks to establish," Sandberg wrote.
Wal-Mart was one of a number of carriers seeking more flexibility in the rule. Among them was the Hours of Service Coalition, which includes such groups as the American Bakers Assn., the Grocery Manufacturers of America, the National Propane Gas Assn., the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Private Truck Council.
The coalition proposed a different solution than Wal-Mart proposed: Let companies choose between the new rule and the old rule. The agency rejected this request, as well.
It also rejected a request by the National Propane Gas Assn. to let propane carriers start complying with the rule by Sept. 1, rather than waiting until next January. And it rejected bids by utility companies such as the Edison Electric Institute and American Gas Assn., to be exempted from the rule.
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