WASHINGTON – Trucking groups, retailers and even enforcement agencies continue to attack the Obama administration’s proposal to cut daily driving and on-duty time for truck drivers.

In their official comments to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the American Trucking Associations once again called on the agency to abandon its "politically motivated proposal" and instead keep the current rules, "which are based on science and have been proven to function safely."

In its current HOS proposal, "the agency has abandoned years of objective analysis in favor of speculation and internal ‘judgments’ of critical areas," ATA said in its comments.

“In short, the agency is far from making any sort of case that the HOS rules should be changed and the obvious strains in its attempt to justify those changes illustrates how ill-considered they are.

"The agency had made numerous crucial errors in its assessment that individually and cumulatively render its conclusions meaningless," ATA said, adding that a leading sleep researcher whose work the agency leaned heavily to justify the changes accused the agency of misapplying his work to support its claims. 

Longer on-duty hours coupled with more
flexible sleeper berth and re-start
provisions, has been workable in Canada.

As well, an independent review commissioned by the ATA found that the government grossly overstated the net benefits of its proposed changes, which, states the report, are based on questionable logic, inadequate data and sloppy math.

Although it’s been relatively calm about the changes to this point, the Canadian Trucking Alliance said in its own comments that the changes would have "a significant negative impact on the efficiency and productivity of the North American supply chain" with "no appreciable benefit to driver safety."

Any reduction in the current rules will have detrimental effect on the delivery of US exports, adding anywhere from one to three days to the transit time for US goods destined for Canada.

"During the recession, exports to Canada were a key to survival for many US businesses. The proposed changes to the hours of service rules will negatively impact that trade," said CTA’s CEO David Bradley.

In its submission, CTA pointed out that longer on-duty hours in Canada, coupled with more flexible sleeper berth and re-start provisions, has not resulted any safety downside.

Even those who will be responsible for enforcing the changes don’t like what the FMCSA is proposing.

“Several of the proposed changes will create more difficulty for roadside inspectors and law enforcement officers to verify compliance . . . we believe the prudent course of action at this point would be to retain the current rules . . ." said Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Executive Director Stephen A. Keppler in his comments submission.

"The data used to formulate the new NPRM seems rather limited … more studies and research data are required to determine if such a drastic change to current HOS are warranted."

Some other comments filed with FMCSA:

U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy:

"The proposed rule is not supported by existing safety and health data. . . . Advocacy recommends that FMCSA consider retaining its current regulations while conducting additional research to determine whether changing the current rules will meet the agency’s stated objective of improving safety, enhancing driver health and providing flexibility. . . The proposed rule would reduce flexibility and could actually impede safety and driver health.”

National Restaurant Association:

"The proposed rule would reduce driving time for nighttime drivers. Meanwhile, nighttime deliveries to restaurants are becoming more and more common, particularly in quick service restaurants. These nighttime deliveries reduce on-highway congestion across America’s largest metropolitan areas while minimizing interruptions in the operations of our members, particularly by lowering the number of deliveries that take place during peak hours, such as lunch time."

U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

"The Chamber finds this proposed regulation of particular concern since it is in direct contradiction to President Barack Obama’s executive order which takes aim at unnecessary and burdensome regulation on business, particularly small business."

Kevin G. Perry, transportation director, Lowe’s:

"If the intent is to continue improving safety with the United States, I believe that these rules are a step in the wrong direction. … I think a lot more realistic research and study time needs to be put in here so that we’re careful that we don’t try to fix something that isn’t broken."