The American Trucking Association is accusing the Federal Motor Carrier safety Admin of “cherry-picking” a few points in a recent GAO review of the changes made to the 34-hour restart provisions of the HOS rule in order to “influence lawmakers.”
As reported by Heavy Duty Trucking, FMCSA said on July 30 that it agreed with certain aspects in the GAO report that stated the changes FMCSA made to the HOS rules improve highway safety by saving lives and lowering the risk of driver fatigue.
In addition, FMCSA advised that the GAO report also recommended that the Dept. of Transportation “adopt formal guidance outlining Agency research standards” and that Congress should consider “directing DOT to study and report on how electronically collected driver schedule data can be extracted, stored, and analyzed in a way that addresses cost and privacy concerns.”
The FMCSA’s changes to the 34-hour restart were vacated in late 2014 and the rules reverted back to its original reset provision and suspended the provision that limits drivers to the use of the reset more than once per week.
That decision was supported by a majority of trucking industry groups, including ATA.
ATA claims that FMCSA in its latest statement “ignored the bulk of the Government Accountability Office’s report on the agency’s 2013 hours-of-service changes” and focused only on a “handful of points” that cast the rule change positively.
“It is unfortunate that rather than present an accurate and balanced characterization of the GAO report, FMCSA is once again living in Spin City,” said ATA Executive Vice President Dave Osiecki.
In making its point, ATA detailed at length additional elements of the GAO report that appear to counter FMCSA’s contention that the restart was safer before reverting back to the old rules.
Read full HDT report here.