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FMCSA Announces Fifth Listening Session Details

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced it will hold a fifth public listening session to hear comments and information on hours of service regulations. The fifth session will be held in conjunction with the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky., on March 26, 2010, at 10 a.m. local time.

The listening session will be an opportunity for stakeholders to present factors, issues and data the FMCSA should be aware of as it prepares to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking on HOS requirements for truck drivers.

The agency is holding the listening sessions after a rewrite of the rule was triggered by an agreement in October between the Department of Transportation and safety advocacy groups. The groups have suspended their legal challenge of the hours of service rules pending completion of a new rule. The groups, including Public Citizen, Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety and the Teamsters union, were challenging the rules on several grounds, asserting for example that they permit too much driving time. Under the agreement, DOT has until next summer to draft a new proposed rule, and until the following summer to publish a final rule.

Those who wish may attend the trucking show and the listening session free of charge, if they pre-register online with the Mid-America Trucking Show organizer at http://truckingshow.com/attendee/attendee-registration .

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