Speedy Truck Wash Inc

Teamsters, safety groups challenge hours-of-service final rule

Highway safety advocates and the Teamsters union are challenging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) hours-of-service (HOS) final rule which became law last spring. The complaint, filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, takes exception to new short-haul and 30-minute break requirements.

The Teamsters, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Parents Against Tired Truckers and Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways filed their petition in early December.

The petition says, “Overall, although the final rule pays lip service to safety and driver health, it ignores factors that affect safety and health, and it fails to demonstrate that the changes were the product of reasoned decision making. The final rule’s provisions on shorthaul operations and the 30-minute break requirement are arbitrary and capricious and should be set aside.”

The new final rule revised four provisions of the HOS: • Short Haul Exception—Expands the short-haul exception to 150 air-miles and allows a 14-hour work shift to take place as part of the exception. • Adverse Driving Conditions Exception—Expands the driving window during adverse weather conditions by up to an additional 2 hours. • 30-Minute Break Requirement— Requires break of at least 30 consecutive minutes after 8 cumulative hours of driving time (instead of on-duty time) and allows an on-duty/not driving period to qualify as the required break. • Sleeper Berth Provision—Modifies the sleeper berth exception to allow a driver to meet the 10-hour minimum off-duty requirement by spending at least 7 hours of that period in the berth combined with a minimum off-duty period of at least 2 hours spent inside or outside the berth, provided the two periods total at least 10 hours. When used together as specified, neither qualifying period counts against the 14-hour driving window.

The Final Rule received more than 8,000 comments when it was published in the federal registry. The groups involved in the petition questioned the FMCSA’s reasoning for the short-haul exception because of a possible safety risk when a driver works later in the day. “The final rule also does not adequately respond to a study showing a 383% heightened crash risk among drivers using the short-haul exemption and does not explain why expanding the work hours of short-haul drivers, who typically make many stops throughout the day, would not be expected to increase the incidence of occupational injuries among such drivers,” the groups said. Regarding the 30-minute break standard, FMCSA focused on the fact that breaks can greatly reduce fatigue caused by constant driving, but the groups said they “ignored the effect on safety of cumulative fatigue due to increased working hours and the fatigue effects of non-driving work, which can include heavy lifting and other strenuous activities.”

The groups also said the FMCSA ignored the health benefits provided by the previous HOS rule “and made no efforts to analyze the effects of the changes to the break requirement on those benefits or other health issues.”