Trucking Alliance Pushes for Removal of Work Hours Cap from Congressional Bill

In a statement released by the Trucking Alliance on May 2, the lobbying and advocacy organization urged Congress to refrain from issuing any further hours-of-service changes until electronic logging devices (ELD) become mandated in December, 2017. The group argues that the new revisions to hours of service in the 2017 Department of Transportation funding bill, which aims to set a 73-hour cap on hours worked during a consecutive seven-day timeframe, should be removed and revisited once ELD data becomes available at the end of next year.

The group cited safety concerns with the proposed 73-hour cap, believing it could do more harm than good for commercial driver safety. The current rules set limits to 60 hours for seven days, and 70 hours for eight day work periods. The Trucking Alliance warns that congressional actions threaten to bypass the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the standard rule making process; policy changes should come as a result of scientific data provided by the ELDs rather than political forces in Congress.

As outlined in the bill, the 73-hour cap would come into effect if the present study determines that hours rules currently being enforced are safer than those implemented from July, 2013 through December, 2014, which required 34-hour restarts to contain two periods from 1-5 AM, and limited the commercial vehicle drivers to a single 34-hour restart per week.

The Trucking Alliance favors the current 34-hour restart rules, which allow drivers to choose any 34-hour timeframe to restart their hours, and can be taken more than once during a week. The bill still faces challenges as it undergoes amendments in the House and Senate, and could see changes to the hours-of-work rules, or be eliminated altogether.