In The News

ATA chairman: changing 34-hour reset is still possible

During a luncheon at the CCJ Summer Symposium on June 24, Phil Byrd, chairman of the American Trucking Associations, recounted a meeting he had with Anne Ferro of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in early May.

Ferro, the FMCSA administrator, came to the ATA headquarters in Washington, D.C., along with eight lieutenants from the agency. A few days earlier, ATRI had finished a critique of the research the agency had used to justify making a change to the 34-hour restart provision in the new hours-of-service regulations that became effective in July, 2013.

The change shortened drivers’ workweek from 82 hours to 70 hours on-duty. It also limited use of the restart to once per week (168 hours) and required that the 34-hour rest period include two consecutive 1-5 a.m. periods.

Drivers previously could use the reset period multiple times per week if needed.

The ATA wanted a legitimate study to be completed and to have the FMCSA revert back to its previous 34-hour restart language until that was done. FMCSA conducted its study using 106 drivers from “arguably the worst motor carriers in America” to come up with findings, said Byrd, who is president and CEO of Bulldog Hiway Express, a Charleston, S.C.-based fleet that operates more than 150 tractors.

The study looked at lane deviation and sleep deprivation for drivers who were running under the previous hours-of-service rules and the new rules. It concluded that in a 24-hour period the drivers running under the old rules had five minutes more of sleep deprivation.

“This 50-year-old hot, male body can’t tell the difference in 5 minutes less sleep or 5 minutes more sleep in a 24-hour period,” Byrd said. “But (the FMCSA) hung their hat on that.”

The difference in lane deviation was a tenth of a centimeter or the thickness of a business card. “That’s it,” he said. “And we changed the regulation on that.”

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