4 GOP lawmakers say they will 'intervene' if FMCSA changes HOS rules

Maria

Diet Coke
Staff member
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and three other Republican Congressman have called on the Obama administration to keep the current Hours of Service rules in place, issuing a pledge to intervene if changes are made when the new Final Rule is released.

The four said they would “aggressively oversee any attempt by the U.S. Department of Transportation to impose new regulatory burdens on the trucking industry by making changes” to the current rules. A committee spokesman said the panel would watch developments closely, and consider all possible courses of action should the rule changes as proposed move forward.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has said it hoped to have the Final Rule issued by the end of October.

Trucking industry stakeholders have expressed the most concern about three aspects of the proposed HOS rulemaking that was first issued last December, including:

• A stated preference by FMCSA to limit the number of driving hours to 10 within a 24-hour period instead of the current11.

• The requirement that a 34-hour restart must include two periods between 12 midnight and 6 a.m. and that a 34-hour restart could be used only one time in a seven-day period.

• A requirement that a driver take at least a 30-minute break after being on duty for seven hours. The driver would be required to rest for a total of one hour within the 14- or-16-hour driving window, effectively reducing the on-duty time each day from 14 to 13. The proposed rule does allow most drivers to extend the driving window to 16 hours twice a week.

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