Truck Drivers’ Final HOS Rule Expected by October 28
According to the latest issue of the Department of Transportation’s List of Significant Rulemakings, the FMCSA remains on track to publish the final Hours of Service (HOS) rule on or before October 28, 2011.
The FMCSA has already postponed one final HOS rule deadline, the July 26 deadline set by a federal judge in October 2009. The July 26 date was set when a suit against the FMCSA was settled. [For more background on the settlement that led to a new proposed HOS rule, please visit A Change to Drivers Hours of Service.]
The proposed HOS changes include a possible reduction of one driving hour (from the current 11 hours to 10 hours), a required 30-minute break after a maximum of 7 hours, and a modification to the 34-hour reset provision requiring that it includes two rest periods between midnight and 6 a.m. [For more information on the proposed HOS rule, please visit FMCSA Publishes New Hours of Service Proposed Rule.]
Nearly everyone in the trucking industry is opposed to the expected change to truck drivers’ HOS rules, one of the most costly rules currently being considered by the Obama administration.
A recent letter to the Office of Management and Budget from the ATA stated that the HOS rules that have been in place since 2004 “have helped trucking achieve unprecedented highway safety gains.” The letter also indicated that a revised rule “would result in reduced wages for hundreds of thousands of drivers, significant administrative and efficiency costs for trucking companies, and most importantly, billions of dollars in lost productivity…retention of the current HOS rules…is the only justifiable and defensible course of action for DOT.”
When it comes to the FMCSA’s final HOS rule, we can be sure of one thing: whether or not we see a rule change, lawsuits could continue to drag things out for years to come.
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