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HOURS OF SERVICE / FATIGUE

New Hours-of-Service Rule: The Same Old Attempt to Undermine Highway Safety

The new Hours-of-Service (HOS) rule issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) August 19, 2005 is a thinly veiled attempt to undermine federal safety laws and the U.S. court system. The new rule will endanger the lives of everyone on our nation’s highways at a time when truck crash deaths have increased. Early results from the 2004 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) show that 5,190 fatalities occurred in large truck crashes, which is a 3.1 percent increase over 2003. One hundred people die every week in truck crashes – equivalent to a major airline crash.

FMCSA’s new rule makes no major changes to the highly criticized 2003 HOS rule. The 2003 rule was thrown out in July 2004 in a stinging opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals. But now, FMCSA’s 2005 rule virtually mirrors the rejected 2003 rule. The agency may again try to permanently codify this dangerous rule – this time in the appropriations process – to avoid further court review.

The following are some major HOS components:

Comparison of the 2000 Proposed Rule, the 2003 Rule, and the 2005 Rule