In The News
Letter: FMCSA being 'selective' in choosing restart study drivers; calls for tougher language in FY2016 bill
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Saying the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was "being deliberately selective in choosing which qualified drivers participate in the study," a consortium of 120 transportation stakeholder organizations Tuesday called on Congress to support a stronger version of the bipartisan Hours of Service restart study requirement Congress approved last December.
The letter highlights the need for Congress to prevent the FMCSA from skewing results of its study to fit its own conclusions — conclusions that the group says run counter to the industry's experience under the agency's "onerous" restart restrictions. It was addressed to Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y., ranking member.
An FMCSA spokesman said the agency was reviewing the letter but had no further comment.
The stronger language referred to in the letter is included in the FY2016 appropriations bill for the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. The bill will be considered by the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday.
The language in the new bill says that restart restrictions would remain suspended until FMCSA's study can demonstrate (as reviewed by the Department of Transportation's Office of the Inspector General) "statistically significant improvement in all outcomes related to safety, operator fatigue, driver health and longevity and work schedules, in comparison to commercial motor vehicle drivers who operated under [the old rules]."
The bill passed last December would in essence allow the FMCSA to make its own conclusions about the outcome of the study — which is supposed to be completed by September 30 — and either reinstate the suspended rule or permanently replace the suspended rule with the rule in place now, which is the restart rule that was in effect prior to July 1, 2013.
"It (the stronger language) would ensure that FMCSA's study is representative of all drivers who use the restart provision and that it considers the full impact of putting more trucks onto the road during daytime traffic," the letter said of the bill under consideration. "Moreover, the provision would prevent insignificant results from being used to justify wide-reaching regulations."
The language in the bill is needed, the letter said, because the FMCSA "has in the past relied on research showing trivial, inconsequential benefits to justify its rules."
The letter cited recent findings by the American Transportation Research Institute (http://trck.ng/ATRI34Restart) showing an increase in not only daytime driving by large trucks after the restart restrictions were imposed, but a statistically significant increase in property damage and injury crashes as a result.
"We have said since day one that FMCSA failed to do even the most cursory investigation of what these restrictions would mean for highway safety in the real world," said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. "The American public deserves to have these rules, which studies have shown raise crash risk on our highways, thoroughly and fairly examined. We urge the House Appropriations Committee to hold FMCSA's feet to the fire until we get a full and fair analysis of the impacts of these restrictions."
Among the groups supporting the stronger language are the American Trucking Associations, the Truckload Carriers Association, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the National Association of Small Trucking Companies.
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