Trucking association calls for retaining current HOS rules

Arlington, VA – Citing President Barack Obama’s push to eliminate unnecessary and burdensome regulations, the American Trucking Associations recently urged the administration to rethink proposed changes to Department of Transportation hours-of-service rules.

The proposed rule (.pdf file), issued in December 2010 by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, would result in reduced wages, higher administrative and efficiency costs, and billions of dollars in lost productivity, according to Dave Osiecki, ATA senior vice president of policy and regulatory affairs.

In a Sept. 2 letter (.pdf file) to Cass Sunstein, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget, Osiecki said even FMCSA’s own impact analysis (.pdf file) showed that the costs of implementation would outweigh crash reduction benefits.

He recommended retaining the current HOS rules, which have been in place since 2004.