The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) announced this morning that it is looking to join the American Trucking Association's (ATA) recent lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's recently published hours-of-service (HOS) regulations.

TCA's executive committee decided yesterday to file the motion.

“Since the 2004 hours-of-service rule went into effect, we have experienced a year-over-year decline in crashes and fatalities involving commercial vehicles on our nation’s highways,” said Chris Burruss, TCA’s president.

“Safety is paramount to the trucking industry and while we remain committed to continuing to reduce accidents, we believe the new rule will take us backward, not forward. We have an obligation to protect our drivers and the motoring public, and we believe this rulemaking stands in conflict with that obligation.”

The ATA also announced today that they have filed a Statement of Issues filed with the Court.

ATA contends that several aspects of the rule issued by the FMCSA are “arbitrary and capricious” and should be overturned.

ATA is taking issue with: "the proposed changes to the restart provision requiring that it include two consecutive periods between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.; limits on the frequency with which a driver may use the restart; the requirement that a mandatory 30-minute break from driving also exclude all other on-duty activity; and narrowing — without prior notice — certain exceptions to drive-time regulations for local delivery drivers."

“There are still many areas where the trucking industry and FMCSA can work together to make progress on highway safety," said ATA president and CEO Bill Graves in a statement, "but the unsoundness of this regulatory process has forced us into court.”

And the TCA, too, it would seem.