Retaining Restart Suspension Provides Benefit for Trucking

“We’re pleased that in the omnibus spending compromise Congress has seen fit to demand that FMCSA show its work before imposing unnecessary and onerous restrictions on the use of the 34-hour restart by commercial drivers,” said ATA president and CEO Bill Graves. “FMCSA foisted these restrictions on the industry without doing a proper investigation into how they might impact trucking safety and truck drivers’ health and longevity, so it is completely appropriate for Congress to establish a safety and health standard.”

In 2013, FMCSA required that drivers using a 34-hour restart to reset their weekly allotment of hours to have two periods between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. in their extended off-duty period and artificially limited the use of those extended rests to once a week. At the time ATA believed, and was shown to be correct according to American Transportation Research Institute analysis of FMCSA crash data, that these restrictions would push more truck traffic into riskier daytime hours and thus increase—rather than decrease—the risk of truckinvolved crashes. ATA also believed FMCSA’s driver health and longevity theory had no basis in reality.

“We greatly appreciate Congress’ attention into this important matter and its insistence that FMCSA properly vet and support the rules they promulgate,” said Dave Osiecki, ATA executive vice president and chief of national advocacy. In addition to the hours-of-service language, ATA also expressed disappointment that the omnibus bill does not allow for the modest increase in tandem trailer length that had achieved bipartisan support in the House and Senate. “We’re disheartened that Congress has passed up a huge opportunity to improve highway safety and trucking’s efficiency by removing language that would have allowed twin 33s on U.S. highways,” said ATA chairman Pat Thomas, senior vice president of state government affairs for UPS.