End truck driver hours restriction

Safety is, and always will be, the trucking industry's highest priority.

That commitment is why we support a number of safety initiatives: from requirements for electronic logging devices and mandatory speed limiters for large trucks to stronger drug and alcohol testing for drivers. Our industry supports the hours-of-service rules that prescribe rest time and limit on-duty and driving time to combat fatigue.

Trucking's dedication to safety also is why we support common-sense efforts in Congress to reduce crash risk for large trucks and passenger vehicles.

These efforts, in light of recent high-profile tragedies, have been misconstrued and misrepresented by our industry's critics, including the Teamsters union, as an attempt to overturn the hours-of-service rules.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

When the federal government revised the rules last July, lawmakers imposed two undue restrictions on drivers' ability to use what is called a restart.

Under the current rules, when a driver reaches the end of his or her allotted weekly driving hours, the driver can reset the clock by taking 34 straight hours off. That restart period is required to include two stretches between 1 and 5 a.m.

Drivers are limited to using the restart once every 168 hours - in other words, once every seven days.

While these restrictions, aimed at providing more nighttime rest for drivers, may seem like no-brainers, what we're finding is they raise crash risk.

How? By being so prescriptive about when drivers must go off duty, the rules are pushing more truck traffic into the early morning, after the 1 to 5 a.m. period ends. This puts more trucks on the road when Americans are going to work and, come September, when children are going to school.

Additionally, by limiting the use of the restart to once every week, the regulations have the perverse effect of encouraging driving at suboptimal times - such as when weather is bad or when a driver is ill.

Absent the restriction, drivers would be free to take additional rest without penalty.

We believe these restrictions raise crash risk, and the agency that imposed them - the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration - has told the industry that increased daytime driving is an 'unintended consequence” of the regulation.

And while unintended consequences happen, the agency can't quantify the impact on safety of that consequence. Why? Because as it told Congress, it never examined what would happen if more trucks took to the road during the day as a result of their rule.

The agency has defended these changes, saying it believes 19 lives a year will be saved by the rule.

We believe saving lives on the highway is very important. However, what if the increase in truck traffic during the day put 20 lives at risk, or more? These are important questions the agency should have answered before making a change of this magnitude.

Congress is asking the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to suspend the hours-of-service rule while it researches the risks associated with increased daytime driving.

The trucking industry believes good data and good science should support good public policy. That's why we support slowing traffic down with a national speed limit of 65 mph and electronic speed limiters on large trucks. That's why we support electronic logging devices for drivers and why we support increased traffic enforcement against aggressive car and truck drivers. And that's why we support suspending the risk-raising restart provisions until they have been fully studied.

' John Smith is board chairman of CRST International. Contact: 319-390-2706