The US House today approved HR 2577, the T-HUD bill, which includes an extension of the current rollback of the hours of service restart provisions.
The $55.3 billion bill includes a number of policy riders sought by various segments of the trucking industry in the U.S. including permission for the use twin 33-foot trailers.
According to the Fleet Owner, the Senate has yet to schedule action on the appropriation, and the White House has threatened to veto the bill.
The American Trucking Assns. is lauding the House for passing a T-HUD bill with two provisions that it says are critical for improving the safety and efficiency of the trucking industry.
“By including language requiring a more robust study of the hours-of-service restart restrictions originally imposed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in July 2013, and a modest increase in the length of some truck combinations, the House has taken an important step in improving the safety of our highways, first and foremost, but also the efficiency of our highway system and the industry that moves nearly 70% of the nation’s goods,” said ATA president and CEO Bill Graves.
The bill requires FMCSA to demonstrate the July 2013 hours-of-service restart restrictions truly improve the health and safety of professional drivers, ATA said.
In addition, the legislation includes a provision that would allow carriers to utilize twin 33-foot trailers – improving capacity and safety, without increasing truck weight limits, ATA said. “This modest change will reduce the number of truck trips needed to move the nation’s freight, cut emissions and reduce trucking’s exposure to crashes,” according to ATA.