Final rule makes no changes to hours-of-service regs

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has answered the Court and its critics, crafting an hours-of-service regulation that leaves all of the current requirements intact.

The final rule, expected to be published in the November 19, 2008, Federal Register, continues to allow property-carrying commercial motor vehicle drivers to drive up to 11 hours within a 14 hour, non-extendable window, following at least 10 consecutive hours off duty. The rule also allows motor carriers and drivers to continue to restart calculations of the weekly on-duty limits after the driver has at least 34 consecutive hours off duty.

The rulemaking is in response to a July 2007 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that vacated the 11-hour driving limit and 34-hour restart provision. The Court’s decision was the result of two court challenges filed in early 2006 by groups headed by Public Citizen and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA).

FMCSA issued an interim final rule in December 2007, keeping the regulations in place while the agency gathered public comment and additional data. In the final rule, expected to be published tomorrow, FMCSA cites numerous studies and surveys as well as data gathered for the 2007 interim final rule and 2005 final rule as justification of the current limits. FMCSA has set a January 19, 2009, effective date for this final rule.

JJKELLER

FMCSA presents budget request

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans more roadside enforcement and inspections than before, according to testimony delivered in its budget request.

Administrator John H. Hill spoke March 29 before the transportation subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. For fiscal year 2008, the FMCSA requests $528 million, of which $228 million is for motor carrier safety operations and programs and $300 million is for motor carrier safety grants.

Hill said the goals are:

To conduct more roadside enforcement and inspections, in cooperation with states and localities.

To prioritize the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program for buses and focus enforcement on curbside buses.

To test the Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 program, designed as a new approach to safety fitness ratings.

To increase efficiency within the agency.

Ninety-three percent of the FMCSA budget, or $489 million, focuses on reducing truck and bus crashes, Hill said.

The largest of the grant program requests is $202 million for Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program grants, which will allow states to conduct 2 million roadside driver and vehicle inspections and more than 5,000 compliance reviews, Hill said. This includes $29 million toward 28,500 state-conducted New Entrant audits, Hill said.

Washington’s Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks pilot program will be expanded to states with the highest fatality and crash rates, Hill said.

Hill’s budget request for fiscal year 2008 is nearly twice the amount of the agency’s $272 million budget in fiscal 2001, an indication of the mounting annual cost of government.

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FMCSA to proceed with medical examiner study

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced its intention to proceed in collecting information on a survey of medical examiners who certify the physical qualifications of commercial motor vehicle drivers.

The six-year transportation spending bill President Bush signed in 2005 calls for improving the quality of the interstate commercial driver physical qualification examination.

No research to date captures the decision making and performance of medical examiners who determine the physical qualifications of commercial drivers, FMCSA said. Nor has there been systematic consideration of medical examiners' perceptions of difficulties or uncertainties with the examination process, FMCSA said.

Results of the study will be used to develop recommendations for improving the physical qualification process.

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Speed Limiter Petitions Draw Heavy Response

The Department of Transportation received nearly 3,700 responses, many of them anonymous, to a pair of petitions seeking a federal regulation to limit truck engine speeds to 68 miles per hour, with comments ranging from strong support to warnings of increased road rage.

Backers of a speed limiter requirement included advocacy groups and truck fleets, but many of the opponents were largely owner-operators and organizations representing them.

Some supporters wanted speed limiters retrofitted to all trucks, rather than only newly manufactured trucks, as cited in the petition American Trucking Associations filed last year requesting the regulation (10-23, p. 1).

“Speeding is a serious problem,” said Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “Advocates supports retrofitting existing heavy trucks with speed limiters to the extent possible and a requirement for speed limiters on all newly manufactured heavy trucks.”

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued their request for public opinion after American Trucking Associations and Road Safe America filed petitions seeking a speed-limiter rule.

Road Safe’s petition sought a speed limiter requirement for all , including those already on the road.

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