Senate Panel Advances Bill That Caps Drivers' Workweek at 73 Hours

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Transport Topics  /  April 21, 2016

A fiscal 2017 transportation funding bill that would set the allowable time truckers may work before taking a break at 73 hours per week was advanced by a Senate panel April 21.

The Appropriations Committee voted 30-0 to report a $56 billion transportation funding bill to the floor.

But the committee adjourned without engaging in debate over trucking policies related to the allowable workweek schedules for truckers. Republican leaders who control the chamber have not indicated when the bill, which would provide funding for transportation programs, would be debated.

The hours-of-service provision in the bill would retain the ability of drivers to reset their workweeks by taking an extended 34-hour off-duty period, with the recognition they still be limited to 73 hours of work, whether driving or other duties, in seven calendar days.

“A driver who uses that restart rule may not drive after being on duty more than 73 hours in any period of seven consecutive days,” according to the bill.

The provision targets a technicality pertaining to truckers’ rest rules in a fiscal 2016 funding law, the interpretation of which could result in relying on the rolling recap of weekly work limits of 60 hours in seven days and 70 hours in eight days.

The fiscal 2016 funding law was intended to address only the 34-hour restart having to do with the consecutive 1 a.m.-to-5 a.m. rest periods, which took effect in 2013. The restart regulation was suspended upon enactment of a fiscal 2015 funding bill.

American Trucking Associations welcomed the hours-of-service language in the fiscal 2017 funding bill.
“ATA is pleased that the committee took such swift action on a bipartisan fiscal-year 2017 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, which includes a provision that underscores Congress’ intent that America’s truck drivers can continue utilizing the hours-of-service restart provision if a congressionally mandated study is unable to demonstrate the July 2013 restart restrictions improve driver safety and health,” ATA Press Secretary Sean McNally told Transport Topics.

While ATA and segments of the transportation sector expressed strong concern over federal hours-of-service regulations, a few groups have come out against the provision. The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety has accused trucking interests of “writing a brand new regulation behind closed doors.”

“There was absolutely no discussion or debate about a controversial provision slipped into the bill that will rewrite the Obama Administration’s truck driver hours-of-service rule and promote even more fatigue among truck drivers,” said Cathy Chase, the group’s vice president of governmental affairs, on passage of bill. “This action is especially egregious considering tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the devastating crash which killed five nursing students from Georgia Southern University. The driver in that crash had a history of falling asleep at the wheel in previous incidents.”

Also, the fiscal 2017 funding bill would require the U.S. Department of Transportation to advance a rule on speed limiters for trucks.

A segment of the trucking industry backs a proposal requiring speed limiters.

Overall, the fiscal 2017 funding legislation would provide nearly $900 million for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, $644 million for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s safety initiatives, $525 million for an infrastructure grants program and $259 million for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

“This bipartisan bill makes important investments in our nation’s infrastructure,” Collins said April 21.

Added Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the transportation funding panel: “The new funding and policies in this bill will help improve the safety of our roads.”

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Senate bill retains 34-hour restart, could rework hours of service rules

Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ)  /  April 21, 2016

The U.S. Senate’s Appropriations Committee April 21 passed 30-0 a bill that corrects a legislative mess-up from December that put the 34-hour restart in jeopardy.

The bill makes clear that the 34-hour restart remains available for use by truck operators should a pending study by the Department of Transportation find that pre-July 2013 restart rules are more effective for truckers’ fatigue levels than those that took effect July 1, 2013.

Should that be the case, the bill would also kick in a few changes to hours of service limits. Specifically, it would set a 73-hour cap on the amount of time truckers can spend on duty in any consecutive seven-day period if utilizing a 34-hour restart. According to the bill’s text obtained by CCJ, “the 7-day measurement period moves forward 1 day at midnight each day.”

Current 60 hours in 7 days and 70 hours in 8 days provisions would remain intact.

The legislation, the 2017 FY Transportation and Housing and Urban Development funding bill, only stipulates that the new 73-hour limit would come into effect following the completion of a 34-hour restart.

If the DOT study finds otherwise — that the July 1, 2013-enacted restart regs are the safer rules — then hours of service regulations from July 2013 would go back into effect. In that case, truckers could use a 34-hour restart to reset their weekly clock, but the restart would be required to contain two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods and would be limited to use once per week. The new 73-hour cap would not go into effect in such a scenario.

The changes to truckers’ hours of service rules were prompted by the need for Congressional action to fix a technical problem enacted by last year’s omnibus funding act. The provisions in that law pertaining to the 34-hour restart could kill the 34-hour restart entirely, per some interpretations. Such a scenario would deny truck drivers the ability to use a restart to reset their weekly on-duty clock, if needed.

The Senate’s action with the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) bill shows Congress may intend to do more than clarify its December 2015 mess-up. Lawmakers and lobbyists appear instead to be using the need for Congressional action as a means to circumvent the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the formal executive rulemaking process to enact hours changes.

The hours reforms in the Senate bill have several major hurdles to clear before being enacted, however. The bill must still be passed by the full Senate, where amendments may be offered to change the provisions or remove them entirely.

The same provisions must also be taken up by the U.S. House and passed there.

The two chambers have not passed a lone Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) funding bill in several years, settling for so-called omnibus funding bills late in the year. If that’s the case this year, the provisions would need to be included in such a bill and passed by both chambers of Congress.

Other trucking-related initiatives in the bill include a deadline for DOT to finish work on a rule to mandate the use of speed limiters on heavy trucks and assign more federal funds to the deployment of autonomous vehicles.

CCJ will post more on the trucking-related provisions within the bill when it’s text becomes available.

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Senate Bill Includes Hours-of-Service Fix; Demands Speed-Limiter Rule

Heavy Duty Trucking  /  April 21, 2016

The transportation spending bill advanced by the Senate Appropriations Committee on April 21 fixes wording in earlier legislation that muddied what the status of the 34-hour restart would be if a study by the Department of Transportation cannot show that the restart changes benefit drivers.

The HOS provision in the FY2017 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill also aims to prevent drivers from abusing the restart rule by capping the amount of time they can spend behind the wheel or on duty at 73 hours per week.

The bill’s language puts it this way: “If the 34-hour restart rule in effect on June 30, 2013, is restored, then drivers who use the 34-hour restart may not drive after being on duty more than 73 hours in a 7-day period."

The American Trucking Associations told HDT it appreciated that the committee included a provision in the THUD bill that will enable truck drivers to “continue utilizing the hours-of-service restart provision if a congressionally mandated study is unable to demonstrate the July 2013 restart restrictions improve driver safety and health.”

As for the hours-of-service cap, ATA stated that it knows that “while professional truck drivers do not work wildly inflated weekly work hours that anti-truck groups claim, we understand the Subcommittee’s sensitivity to claims [that] a handful of drivers might abuse the restart rule to work long hours in a week. We look forward to working with members in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle to ensure that professional truck drivers continue to have the opportunity to get extended off-duty rest periods that reset their work week.”

ATA added that the Senate language appears to “retain the ability of drivers to reset their work weeks by taking an extended 34-hour off-duty period, with the recognition they are still limited to 73 hours of work (driving or other duties) in seven calendar days.”

The $56.5 billion bill, which passed 30-0 with strong bipartisan support, also directs the Transportation Department to issue its proposed rule on speed limiters for Class 7 and 8 trucks by April 28, 2016.

The bill includes $16.9 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Transportation, which the Senate committee said was $1.7 billion below the FY2016 enacted level and $2.5 billion below the President’s request. “Within this amount, funding is prioritized on programs to make transportation systems safe, efficient, and reliable. The bill ignores the budget request to shift certain programs from discretionary to mandatory spending,” stated the committee.

The legislation also directs that $44 billion from the Highway Trust Fund be spent on the Federal-aid Highways Program, consistent with the FAST Act highway bill. The committee said the THUD bill “continues to allow state departments of transportation to repurpose old, unused earmarks for more important infrastructure projects.”