This week the U.S. House Appropriations Committee passed a DOT spending bill that had some additional regulations built in to it that would make the rollback of the HOS restart rules permanent.
If the bill passes the Senate, it will secure funding for another year for the DOT, but perhaps more importantly for truckers, it lifts the axe that has been hanging over their necks.
When the HOS restart rules were rolled back, it was only temporary since the rules were set to come back into effect on September 30th, 2015. With the passing of this bill however, the rollback will become permanent until such time (if any) that the FMCSA can produce hard evidence that their changes actually make truckers and the rest of the motoring public safer. Given the uproar over the methods of testing however, it looks like that may be a while.
Some lawmakers are against having the rider added to the funding bill on principle, saying that “controversial riders have no place in an already difficult appropriations process,” and speaking out against the riders.
It gets even hairier when you consider that along with the HOS restart rollback, there are other riders that have been added as well, including the incredibly controversial proposal that would allow for a significant increase in truck length and weight.
“I’m strongly opposed to the policy riders that were attached to this bill,” said Rep. David Price. “Controversial riders generally shouldn’t be attached to an appropriations bill, and those on truck length and weight have no place, in particular on this bill.”
The ATA is pushing hard for all of the riders to be included and for the bill to pass. According to the ATA, extending the deadline for the restart rollback would “prevent insignificant results from being used to justify wide-reaching regulations.”
Next Story: FMCSA Restart Study To Have Fraudulent Results?
Source: fleetowner, overdrive, foleyservices
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Dave Stout says
What exactly are they rolling back? Just the 1 to 5 am two nights in a row rule for a 34 hour reset, or are they letting us drive more than 11 hours a day and letting us work more than 14 hours a day? I like that fact that they did away with the dvir everyday rule, that was good.
JJ says
I like the rules just as they are…we dont need to have limits on the timeframes and days we can do a restart…thats rediculous….the 34 hr restart should stay just like it is with no one telling us when we can do one and what hours are appropiate for them…
and yes if your tired than get some sleep…when I drive nites I can always carve out a hour catnap between them wee hours after midnite. Just me but I need an extra one hour of sleep when driving nites..everyones different, but man when your tired go get some sleep before you kill yourself or someone else!!
Chuck says
I listened to a driver the other day, ( he’s been driving for two years) , he was fussing about how he wasn’t going to get his reset this week. Why does everyone now have to have a reset? Can no one work off a recap anymore. ?
Infosaur says
Misleading headline alert: HOS isn’t going away, just the last revision of it.
I’m more concerned with the ‘longer-heavier” addendum which some have been pushing. I’m not sure who’s behind this because most of the time our trailers aren’t 100% full as it is because of poor warehouse planning. And will every truck stop, rest area, weigh station and distribution center need to be redesigned for the new trailers? Like how some east-coast & rust belt cities have docks that were never meant for anything bigger than a 42’?
Dalton says
Exactly right. The title is very misleading and you can bet none of the wharehouses are going to redesign anything. They dont care if you tear up your truck or somebody elses trying to get turned around or backed in. It’s the not my problem category.