ATA and CRASH go wheel to wheel on hours of service

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 4) — A Dept. of Transportation conference on safety provided a forum for leaders of the American Trucking Associations and CRASH to air their differences on driver fatigue and how to prevent it.

ATA president Walter McCormick told an audience at the National Transportation Safety Conference, held March 2 and 3 in Washington, D.C., that three things would prevent fatigue in trucking: education and training; more roadside rest areas; and — ATA’s top policy priority — reform of the hours of service rules.

McCormick is pushing for a “negotiated rulemaking” to break the logjam on hours of service reform. Typically, federal rules are created through a process of proposals by an agency, followed by public comment and then a rulemaking. What McCormick wants is a reversal of the process: the hours of service players come up with a solution, then present it to the government. The traditional approach has failed, and there is precedent for this approach, he said.

But Joan Claybrook, director of San Francisco-based CRASH (Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways), is vehemently opposed to the idea. She assailed ATA, saying she would never sit down to negotiate a rule that would lead to longer duty periods for truck drivers.

McCormick replied that ATA has not specified that it wants longer duty hours, but rules based in science. That may lead to more hours, but only if the science of fatigue shows that longer hours are safe, he said.

Meanwhile, U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater told representatives of all modes from government, trade associations, labor unions, and citizen’s groups, that his department would “focus sharply, with vision and vigilance, on safety and making a real difference for the next millennium.”

The attendees — numbering 300-plus in Washington — were asked to “Sign on for Safety” by pledging alertness to such safety fundamentals as driving sober, buckling seat belts, obeying speed limits, and avoiding unnecessary risks.

— Oliver Patton