"Hours of Service" Rules Update

The U.S. Department of Transportation is moving ahead with its proposal to revise the Hours of Service (HOS) rules for truck drivers, which, as proposed, would create huge obstacles for efficient log trucking in the U.S. DOT's field hearings concluded June 30, in Atlanta, including very articulate testimony from Jo Ann White, Director of Safety Management and Compliance for Frankie Arrants Trucking in Jamesville, North Carolina. She pointed out the problems the "mandatory weekend" provision and tightened on-duty hours would pose in the realities of log truckers' weather- and market-constricted hauling schedules. To review her statement, please click here.

Under the proposed rules:

• The "daily" (type 4) driver would be limited to 12 hours on-duty on any workday (current rules permit 15 on-duty hours).
  
  

• The driver would be restricted to 60 on-duty hours each week (current rules permit 70 hours per eight-day period).
  
  

• Every driver would be subject to a mandatory weekend of at least 32 hours off-duty every seven days (current rules have no such provision).
  
  

• States would not be able to issue variances to the federal rules, as they may at present.
  
  

• There would be a partial exemption for agriculture, but this exemption would not apply to forest products trucking.

Field hearings are over, but DOT has extended the public comment period to October 30. Anyone with comments on the rule may mail them to Mr. Clyde J. Hart, Jr., Acting Deputy Administrator, c/o Docket Clerk, USDOT Docket Facility, Attn: Docket FMCSA-97-2350, 400 Seventh Street, SW, Washington, DC 20590.

Meanwhile, Representatives Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) and Bob Clement (D-Tennessee) are encouraging their fellow Representatives to support language in a House bill similar to current language in the Senate Transportation Appropriations Bill "prohibiting funding for finalizing the proposed rule on hours-of-service" during the fiscal year which begins October 1, 2000. To date, this letter has nearly 100 signatories in the House.

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