10/11/07 6:30 AM

Court Ruling Extends Safety Rules for Truckers

By Bill Leonard

A federal appellate court decision will allow a set of work-hour rules for truck drivers to remain in effect until the end of 2007, even though the same court struck down the regulations on July 24. The ruling drew an interesting mix of praise from advocacy groups that support and oppose the hours-of-service rules issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in 2005.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia agreed on Sept. 28, 2007, to extend the regulations for 90 days even though the same court had found just two months earlier that the FMCSA failed to follow federal rulemaking guidelines and ordered that the rules be rescinded. In its July 2007 decision, the court required that the FMCSA had to revert, by the end of September, to work-hour regulations used prior to 2003.

The hours-of-service rules for long-haul truck drivers have been a source of controversy for several years between the trucking industry and advocacy groups that promote highway safety. In 2003, the FMSCA first released a set of rules that would allow truck drivers to work 11 hours during a single shift and then rest for 10 hours. The previous rules set work shifts for truck drivers at 10 hours with eight-hour rest breaks.

The appellate court struck down the 2003 regulations, and the FMCSA responded by reissuing a similar set of rules in 2005. Groups such as the Teamsters, Public Citizen, and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety filed suit claiming that the new rules jeopardized the health and safety of truck drivers.

Even though the newer rules required longer rest breaks of 10 hours, the regulations did allow truckers to work more hours during the week. According to the original set of rules, truck drivers could only work 70 hours over an eight-day period.

The newer rules issued in 2005 allowed drivers to work 70 hours during a week and to restart their workweek after resting for 34 hours straight. Highway safety groups and the Teamsters claimed that the 34-hour restart rule meant that truckers were required to work more hours every week and therefore would be much more susceptible to fatigue.

Trucking industry groups, like the American Trucking Association (ATA), supported the new regulations, claiming that they allowed employers to make more effective use of truck drivers and helped them to address a nationwide shortage of qualified drivers.

In July 2007, the appellate court found that the FMCSA did not provide proper notice of the 2005 rule change and did not give the public enough time to comment on the rule revisions. The court stated that the agency did not adequately assess the risks associated with 11 straight hours of driving and that agency officials failed to properly factor in the cumulative fatigue resulting from the 34-hour restart rule.

After the court struck down the regulations in July, officials with the FMCSA requested a 12-month extension of the current rules, claiming that a 60-day deadline was unreasonable and that employers needed time to retrain drivers, revise work logs and redraw trucking routes. Officials with the ATA asked for a delay of eight months.

In an interesting twist, the ATA and the opposing groups claimed victory in the court’s decision to extend the deadline. According to officials with the advocacy groups, the 90-day extension clearly showed that the court agreed with their arguments, and they praised the court for not bowing to pressure to extend the deadline further.

“We opposed any delay but argued that if there was one, it should be no more than 90 days, which the court agreed with,” said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen.

ATA officials said they were pleased that the court agreed in part to extend the deadline.

“The ATA now awaits the decision by the Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on how they plan to proceed during the 90-day stay granted by the court,” ATA officials said in a written statement. “We are confident the court has provided the agency sufficient time to issue an interim final rule that retains the 11-hour driving limit and the 34-hour restart.”

Officials with the FMCSA did not say when they might issue any interim regulations, and stated they were “carefully evaluating our options in light of the court’s ruling.”

Bill Leonard is senior writer for HR News.

Related Articles:

Washington: Interstate Trucker Entitled to Overtime Pay Under State Law, SHRM Online Workplace Law Focus Area, March 9, 2007

Canada: Unions Back Revised Driver Work Regulations, SHRM Online Global HR Library

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