U.S. DOT promises to ‘clean up’ hours-of-service proposal

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 25, 2000) — With a veto threat in one hand and a promise of changes in the other, U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater yesterday continued his campaign to keep the hours of service reform process alive.

Slater said he would have a tough time recommending to President Clinton that he sign a DOT appropriations bill that cuts off funding for the rulemaking process. The Senate version of that bill contains a provision pushed by American Trucking Associations that would prohibit the department from doing any work on hours reform during the next fiscal year.

“There is no way that we can even suggest that (that) kind of measure will be acceptable,” Slater told reporters at a press conference.

DOT seems prepared to issue a supplemental rulemaking that, in the words of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief Clyde Hart, would “clean up” the original proposal, although he acknowledged in the same sentence that he hated to use the term.

At this point, Hart said, the safety agency does not know what will be in the supplemental rule. He and Slater did indicate that they have specific issues in mind, however: the distinctions between trucks and buses, sleeper berth rules, and the categories of carrier operations. On the latter point, Hart suggested that the safety agency may add more categories because “there are a number of operators who don’t seem to fit neatly in one or the other neatly.”

Slater and Hart see the roundtable sessions — six days of discussions scheduled in Washington, D.C., in September and early October — as key to the process. At the roundtables, representatives of all interests will be invited to speak on specific hours of service issues, such as scheduling rules, onboard recorders, and enforcement.

Hart specifically mentioned that he wants to see the ATA-sponsored study of the safety agency’s analysis of the economic impact of the current proposal.

Hart maintained that there is agreement on significant details of the proposal — the 24-hour clock, the 12-hour driving day, the provision for some weekend rest.

Challenged on the 12-hour day, Hart explained that while there are differences on how the rules should account for on-duty time versus driving time, “there is agreement on the basic day for drivers.” He also said that there is not that much difference between the FMCSA proposal and ATA’s proposal on the number of hours that should constitute a weekend.

Source: Oliver Patton, truckinginfo.com