In The News

Suggested HOS changes could cost industry $3.1 billion annually

WASHINGTON — Reduction of allowable driving time from 11 to eight hours and elimination of the 34-hour restart rule as suggested by a group of safety advocate organizations could cost the trucking industry $3.1 billion or more annually based on data developed in 2005.

The reduction of driving time and elimination of the 34-hour restart were suggested in a public comments document filed on behalf of the Truck Safety Coalition, Public Citizen and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

The economic impact information was developed when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was rewriting the so-called 2003 rule that was negated by a federal court, which said the FMCSA had not taken into consideration the impact on the health of truckers when it expanded the allowable driving time from 10 to 11 consecutive hours and introduced the 34-hour restart rule.

The petitioners who brought the suit that resulted in the ruling were hoping the new rule would reduce driving time to 10 hours and eliminate the 34-hour restart, published articles from that time period show.

Instead, FMCSA kept the 11 hour driving time and the 34-hour restart rule, but changed the sleeper berth provision to require longer periods of time rest.

“We estimate that the loss of the 11-hour driving limit and the 34-hour restart would cost the industry about $2.1 billion per year, of which $1.6 billion would be attributable to the 34-hour restart and $500 million to the 11th hour of driving,” FMCSA said at the time. “By subtracting the estimated $125 million of safety benefits, the net annual cost to the industry would be approximately $2 billion.”

Sources told The Trucker that the $500 million figure would probably still be applicable to each hour of eliminated driving today, but that there could be factors that might add to or decrease that amount.

What impact economic data will have in development of new HOS rule obviously remains to be seen, but the FMCSA and other federal agencies are required to consider dollars and cents on any rule they publish.

“We have to follow what Congress told us through the administrative procedures act,” former FMCSA Administrator John Hill said in an interview just days before he left office in January 2009. “We have to weigh all public comments, and then we have to look at the costs and the benefits of any rule that we publish. When you do that and you start trying to back away from the Hours of Service rule as it has been implemented, you get into huge cost considerations. And I don’t see that changing from an administrative rulemaking process.”

Lyndon Finney of The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected].

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