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HOURS OF SERVICE / FATIGUE

Hours of Service Codification

DON’T COMPROMISE HIGHWAY AND TRUCK SAFETY

OPPOSE CODIFICATION OF THE FLAWED TRUCK DRIVER HOURS OF SERVICE (HOS) RULE UNANIMOUSLY OVERTURNED BY THE COURT

THE CURRENT HOS RULE IS UNSAFE AND HAS MANY DANGEROUS FLAWS:
• Longer Driving Shifts
• Longer Driving Hours Per Work Week and Month
• Less Work Week Time Off
• The rule does not put drivers on a 24-hour drive/rest work cycle
• After 8 hours of Split Rest Time in Sleeper Berths the Remaining 2 Hours Can Be Abused
• Interrupted Rest and Recovery Time
• Electronic On-Board Recorders Are Not Required
• Does Not Protect the Health of Truck Drivers

These are the reasons why a unanimous 3-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the flawed rule and required the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to revise the rule to protect the health of drivers and to make the highways safer for everyone

THERE IS NO PRELIMINARY SAFETY “DATA” ON THE HOS RULE:
• There is absolutely no scientific merit to industry claims that the current rule has a positive safety effect.
• Privately collected industry field data does not measure up to the quality of the scientific methods needed to conduct controlled studies showing the effects of the HOS rule.
• Hundreds of studies in the HOS rulemaking docket adhere to standards of scientific investigation that the industry effort cannot even match.
• Figures cited by the trucking industry are worthless as indicators of the safety effects of the new HOS regulation adopted in April 2003;
• Nothing in the reissued August 2005 rule provides data to support allowing much longer driving and work hours, and the agency explanation is still contradicted by the scientific evidence;
• “Surveys” or “opinion polls” are not scientific research.

SELLING OUT SAFETY IS NOT A “BALANCED APPROACH” TO HOS:
• The only way this rule is “balanced” is on the backs of the men and women who are being asked to drive up to 28 percent longer hours in each tour of duty compared to the old rule.
• It is not “balanced” to take away 2-3 days of rest time each week and replace it with only a single 34 hour period before they can be forced back into the cab to drive another 77 hours over 7 days or 88 hours over 8 days.
• DOT did change the rule to require one rest/sleep period of at least 8 hours in sleeper berths, yet some are pushing bills to delay enforcement of that safety improvement.

CODIFICATION OF A FLAWED RULE IS BAD PUBLIC POLICY:
• There has been only one suit against the HOS rule, and that legal action resulted in a scathing rejection of the regulation as completely unsupported by the facts and scientific research in the rulemaking record.
• The U.S. Court of Appeals found that U.S. DOT was in violation of longstanding federal law and its responsibilities to protect the health of truck drivers. The Court remanded the rule to the agency and the agency issued a nearly identical rule in August 2005.
• DOT wants to write this unsafe rule into law, and dispense with the requirement that DOT consider the health of truck drivers when the government issues a rule that affects truck drivers.