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Congress Has Multiple Options for Fixing HOS Glitch
Multiple pieces of congressional legislation are being considered as the best vehicle to fix a technical "glitch" in a fiscal 2016 funding law related to the hours-of-service rule for truckers.
Transportation leaders on Capitol Hill are likely to begin addressing the legislative fix as early as March, said Dave Osiecki, chief of national advocacy for American Trucking Associations. Lawmakers are considering whichever bill has the best chance of advancing to the president's desk for his signature. They return to Capitol Hill this week from a weeklong recess.
"ATA is focused on fixing the current problem," Osiecki said. "We're heartened by the fact that key members of Congress on both sides of the aisle seem willing to work toward a common sense, acceptable solution."
Officials at the U.S. Department of Transportation confirmed the agency is aware of the situation and would cooperate with lawmakers and the industry to address the matter.
"While Congress works on this issue, the department stands ready to provide assistance as requested," DOT told Transport Topics on Feb. 16 in an e-mailed statement.
At issue is technical language that was omitted in the fiscal 2016 funding law, signed by President Obama in December. As a result, the law appears to indicate that DOT is required to eliminate the existing HOS rule - not just a 34-hour restart provision in the rule - if a congressionally mandated study of the restart provision fails to show safety and other benefits.
The funding law, or omnibus, had been intended to address only the 34-hour restart provision, which calls for consecutive 1 a.m.-to-5 a.m. rest periods and that they be limited to once a week. Those regulations have been suspended since enactment of a fiscal 2015 funding bill that was signed in December 2014. They were first implemented in July 2013.
According to ATA, the DOT's interpretation of the law could result in reverting to weekly work limits of 60 hours in seven days and 70 hours in eight days.
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of Directors
President
Mike Connell
Bennett Motor Express
First Vice President
Dave Gallano
Gallano Trucking
Second Vice President
Tom Witt
Roehl Transport
Past President
Jon Coca
Diamond Transportation System, Inc.
Clayton Fisk
Warren Transport
Jeremy Ihle
Ihle Transport, Inc.
Heather Johnson
Landstar
Transportation Logistics
TMHA Mission Statement
To provide an ongoing forum for education, networking and advocacy for flatbed, step-deck and lowboy (RGN) carriers that specialize in the transportation of machinery and machinery-related commodities throughout the United States and Canada.
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Turning ELDs From Burden to Opportunity
Whether fleets and drivers like electronic logging devices (ELDs) or not, they must add them to their vehicles by mid-December 2017; that's the law.
For those fleets not already using ELDs, Daniel Brown, risk control technical manager for insurance firm Travelers, said complying with the law boils down to this: Will trucking view it as a costly burden or an opportunity to generate savings?
Yet turning the ELD mandate into a "savings opportunity" requires several steps on the part of trucking companies, Brown emphasized.
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After pulling down the so-called "absolute" scoring measures in the CSA program's publicly available carrier scoring dashboard (the Safety Measurement System), the DOT's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration likely will return those absolute scores within the SMS BASICs to public view next month.
The absolute scores represent a time and severity-weighted calculation of a carrier's violation performance in each BASIC. The higher the number, the worse the performance. The percentile ranking carriers receive in each BASIC are directly based on comparing the absolute measures among groups of carriers.
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Agenda Set for TMHA Annual Meeting in Des Moines, April 13 & 14
A tentative schedule has been established for The Machinery Haulers Association's upcoming annual meeting that will be held at the TMHA Headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, on April 13 & 14.
The event will kick-off on Wednesday, April 13, with a welcome reception and dinner at 801 Chophouse. Shuttle transportation will be available to and from the restaurant from the Hampton Inn & Suites hotel, where a discounted room block has been established.
April 14 will include a breakfast at 7:30 AM with the membership meeting at 8:00 AM. Immediately following the membership meeting will be four presentations from the following speakers:
Legislative Update
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad
Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry Presentation
Rebecca Brewster, ATRI
The Elections of 2016 Presentation
Dennis J. Goldford, Drake University
Regulatory Update Presentation
Shirley McGuire, FMCSA
Entire details relating to the meeting, speakers and hotel accommodations (TMHA room block expires on March 16) can be found in the meeting promotion linked from the website below.
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Anti-Coercion Rule Now in Effect
A new federal rule that implements large fines for carriers, shippers and brokers caught pressuring drivers to operate beyond federal safety regulations, such as when they're out of hours, is now in effect, as is a new system for truckers to file complaints for alleged coercion instances with the FMCSA.
The rule, which took effect January 29, is intended to protect truckers from "threats of economic harm," the rule states, such as loss of business, pay, miles, loads and the like, if drivers don't comply with entities trying to push them to operate when they legally can't.
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The burden being placed on roadside inspectors by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is becoming excessive, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance says, due to the large number of exemptions being granted to drivers and carriers.
In a letter penned to FMCSA, CVSA representatives said there were more than 20 exemption applications or renewal requests granted in 2015, including some for vehicle equipment, hours-of-service and more. An FMCSA spokesman said the letter is under review by the agency
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Proposed Safety Fitness Determination Rule Comments Needed
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a proposed safety fitness determination rule on January 21, 2016. The proposed rule would use data from agency and roadside inspections, on-site investigations, or both, in evaluating on a monthly basis whether a carrier is fit to operate.
The proposed rule would replace the current three-tier federal SafeStat rating system of "satisfactory, conditional or unsatisfactory" for carriers, that has been in use since 1982, with a single determination of "unfit," which would require the carrier to either improve or cease operations. A carrier could be proposed unfit by failing two or more Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) through inspections or investigation results, or a combination of both.
Once in place, the rule will permit FMCSA to assess the safety fitness of approximately 75,000 companies a month using the agency's Compliance, Safety, Accountability program's safety measurement system methodology. FMCSA said it currently is only able to investigate 15,000 motor carriers annually.
The CSA measurement system has been sharply criticized by the trucking industry and the Government Accountability Office as in some instances using flawed data, allegations that FMCSA has denied.
We would encourage you to file comments concerning this proposed rule. This would change transportation as we know it, and not necessarily for the better. The comment period closes on March 21, 2016.
We have put together a sample letter and talking points for our members to use as a basis to develop their comments. Please contact Don Egli for copies of these documents or for information on how to file comments.
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