House Proposes Alternative Bill for 34-Hour Restart

On January 17, the House Appropriations Committee presented a DOT funding bill for the 2017 fiscal year that would finalize the 2014 “restart rollback” by reinstating the hours-of-service rules to those in place in December of 2011. The bill only affects the 34-hour restart rule change mandated in 2013 and maintains the necessary 30-minute break initiated that year.

The bill is independent of the current Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Study examining the efficacy of the rule change.

The new bill is a more positively regarded alternative to the one proposed by the Senate which caps commercial transport hours-of-service at 73 hours. The new bill would void any findings from the FMCSA study.

The House bill also restricts the FMCSA’s progress on the suggested Safety Fitness Determination requirement until the FAST Act reforms take effect. There has been recent pushback from industry leaders and lawmakers over the FMCSA’s dependence on the Safety Measurement System; the FMCSA has moved forward with the SFD rule despite orders from Congress to limit SMS Basic rankings access and to refrain from using them as criteria for assessing motor carriers until the system undergoes revisions.

The House version of the bill may be the preferred ruling on hours-of-service for all parties involved.