WASHINGTON - Steve Williams, the chief executive officer of Little Rock’s Maverick USA trucking company, told a House panel Tuesday that new rules for how long truck drivers can stay behind the wheel before taking a break for sleep are unlikely to increase highway safety.
The new regulations, which go into effect July 1, have been criticized both by truckers, who say they will be difficult to abide by, and traffic safety advocates, who say they aren’t stringent enough. Truckers and safety advocates have cross-filed suits in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to stop the rules from going into effect. The court heard oral arguments in the case in March.
“The rules will increase driver stress and frustration,” Williams told members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Highways.
The two rule changes that have truckers most concerned would require drivers to take a half-hour break during their first eight hours on the road and would make a change in a rule known as the 34-hour “restart provision.”
Under the current rules, which the U.S. Department finalized in 2003, truckers may drive up to 11 hours a day and can be “on duty” - performing driving and other tasks - for up to 14 hours a day and 60 hours in a workweek. But if a driver takes a 34 hour break, he can “restart” his accumulation of hours toward another 60 hour limit, allowing him to log as much as 82 on-duty hours in one week.
The rule change would limit restarts to once a week to prevent the accumulation of on-duty hours. Also, the 34-hour rest break must include at least two periods between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. in an effort to reduce overnight driving.
Joan Claybrook, consumer co-chairman of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, would like to limit drivers to 10 hours a day behind the wheel.
“If a driver nods off for a second, it can result in a deadly crash,” she said.
According to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, 3,757 people, including 547 truck drivers, were killed in large truck crashes in 2011. An additional 88,000 suffered injuries from truck crashes that year, according to the agency.
Maverick USA’s Williams told the committee more stringent rules aren’t needed. He criticized the Federal Motor Carrier Administration, the federal agency in charge of writing the rules, for not conducting an actual field test of the new rules, and suggested their implementation be put on hold until litigation on the issue is settled.
“I’d prefer to have the facts in front of us before we make the changes,” said Williams, who told the committee that the trucking industry as a whole expects to see a 2-3 percent annual loss in productivity - equal to about $890 million - because of the rules.
Anne Ferro, the administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Administration, said the rules were based on extensive peer-reviewed research.
“I have very high confidence this rule is strong and will be upheld by the court,” she said.
Rep. Rick Crawford, a Jonesboro Republican said there is “little hope” of enforcing hours of service regulations and improving safety without the use of electronic on-board recording devices - a computer that automatically tabulates how long a driver is on the road. The devices, Crawford said, would make it hard for truck drivers to falsify their driving reports.
“These guys, and gals are always trying to find ways of creating flexibility for themselves so they can work harder,” Crawford told his fellow committee members. “They’re not trying to go out and hurt people. “
Sen. Mark Pryor, a Little Rock Democrat, successfully inserted language calling for the devices in a broad transportation bill last year. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was supposed to finalize rules for their use this October, but at Tuesday’s hearing Ferro, the agency’s head, said the rule making process would only begin this fall, making it unlikely a final rule would be ready until late 2014.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 06/19/2013