New hours-of-service rules issued Updated 4:11 p.m. ET, Mon Aug 22, 2005 By Angela Greiling Keane WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators on Friday released new hours-of-service rules for truck drivers that left most of the controversial HOS regulations issued in 2003 unchanged. Truckers can still drive 11 hours in a day and restart their workweek after a 34-hour rest period. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration did change the rules for long-haul drivers using sleeper berths and for short-haul drivers who operate smaller trucks within a 150-mile radius. For long-haul drivers, sleeper berth breaks will now have to last at least eight consecutive hours. Under the current rule, drivers can split their berth time into separate segments. Also, short-haul drivers that don't have commercial drivers licenses -- such as local delivery workers, route drivers, landscapers -- may work up to 16-hour days two days per week and 14-hour days on other days. These drivers do not have to complete logbooks. The FMCSA said those drivers rarely drive "anything close" to 11 hours a day and are "greatly underrepresented in fatigue-related accidents." The new rules relieved truckers and shippers, who feared truckers' allowable driving hours might drop back to 10 per day or be further restricted, cutting into productivity gains made at terminals and loading docks over the past year. "We feel confident that the trucking industry will continue its positive progress in safety and productivity under these rules," said American Trucking Associations President and Chief Executive Bill Graves. Safety advocates that challenged the 2003 rules, led by Public Citizen, were unhappy with the FMCSA's revisions. "The proposed rule issued today by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regarding the number of hours truckers can drive is a disappointment," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "It is virtually unchanged from a 2003 rule that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down last year. "While we support the portion of the rule that no longer allows drivers to split the time they spend in sleeper berths, the overall increased driving and working time is not supported by the vast body of scientific literature that exists about fatigue and driver safety," Claybrook said. She said she has not decided whether to challenge the rule in court. The FMCSA was forced to rewrite the rules after a federal appeals court overturned its previous effort in 2004. Deciding in favor of safety advocates led by Public Citizen, the court said the FMCSA had not adequately considered the impact of its regulations on drivers' health in its rulemaking. FMCSA Administrator Annette Sandberg said the new rule should stand up to another court challenge. She said the agency did not make major changes to the rule but rather worked on addressing the court's specific concerns. "We hope this rule ends the uncertainty that enforcement agencies and industry have experienced," she said. The new rules will take effect Oct. 1 with an enforcement grace period until Dec. 31. -- Angela Greiling Keane is associate editor of Traffic World
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