The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit on July 24 invalidated two
significant pieces of the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration’s hours-of-service
regulations, rejecting the increase of the daily
driving limit from 10 hours to 11 and the 34-hour
restart option for drivers’ weekly on-duty limits.
In addition, the court’s three-judge panel
rejected the petition filed by the Owner-Operator
Independent Drivers Association. Among other
things, OOIDA had objected to changes in use of
the sleeper berth to satisfy rest requirements.
FMCSA’s failings in the case may stem from how it
formulated the rule, rather than in what the rule
contained. A three-judge panel deciding the case
for the court concluded that FMCSA “violated the
Administrative Procedure Act because it failed to
give interested parties an opportunity to comment
on the methodology of the crash-risk model that
the agency used to justify an increase in the
maximum number of daily and weekly hours that
truck drivers may drive and work.”
The American Trucking Associations says that
because the flaws cited by the court are
procedural, they can be corrected by FMCSA. “ATA
will work to provide support to the agency for
re-adoption of the 11-hour daily drive time and
34-hour restart,” says ATA. “In the meantime, ATA
will seek a stay from the court that would allow
those provisions to stay in place pending the
agency’s re-evaluation of them.”
According to court rules, the decision will not
take effect for at least 52 days, ATA says. During
the first 45 days, FMCSA can petition for
reconsideration.
The FMCSA noted the time factor in its short
statement, issued later in the day: “We are
analyzing the decision issued today to understand
the court’s findings as well as determine the
agency’s next steps to prevent driver fatigue,
ensure safe and efficient motor carrier operations
and save lives. This decision does not go into
effect until September 14, unless the court orders
otherwise.”
When the appeals court rejected the first revised
hours-of-service regulation in July 2004, the
Republican-led Congress held the new rules in
place for about a year while FMCSA worked on a new
version.
After the 2005 rule was announced, FMCSA denied
the petitions by OOIDA and Public Citizen for
reconsideration. The groups then filed court
challenges in 2006, and other trucking and safety
advocacy groups filed comments on one side or the
other
