Teamsters: Hours-of-Service Rule A Dangerous Midnight Move

FMCSA Ignores Courts, Congress, Highway Safety

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today said the Bush administration is undermining highway safety with its last-minute regulation that lets truckers drive longer hours.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration today released its final rule on truck drivers' hours of service. It extends the hours they can drive from 10 hours to 11 hours.

"We will continue to fight this dangerous midnight rule through the courts and through Congress," Hoffa said. "We're currently reviewing our legal options, especially since the court threw out this regulation twice."

The rule has been struck down twice by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Court.

But in brazen defiance of the court and in subservience to the trucking industry, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) reinstated it as an interim final rule late last year.

"Letting tired truck drivers spend even more time behind the wheel is foolish and dangerous," Hoffa said. "I just hope this country can survive the last 61 days of the Bush administration as it goes into a frenzy of gutting public health and safety protections."

The percentage of fatal crashes that result from driver fatigue rose 20 percent in 2005 from 2004 - the first year in which the longer hours of driving were allowed.

Background

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) first promulgated the hours-of-service rule in 2003, increasing the number of hours truckers can drive. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down the rule in 2004, but Congress reinstated it as part of the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2004.

FMCSA issued a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in January 2005, proposing a rule that was little changed from the 2003 rule that had been struck down.

On July 24, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for the second time threw out the rule that increased driving time to 11 hours from 10 hours and allowed drivers to go back to work after being off duty for only 34 hours.

In the 39-page opinion, Judge Merrick Garland called the rule "arbitrary and capricious."

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters was a party in the case, joining Public Citizen and the Owner-Operator Independent Driver's Association.

The deadline for the court's July decision to go into effect was Sept. 14. But legal challenges pushed that deadline back. FMCSA issued the interim final rule on Dec. 11.

The court declined on Jan. 23 to enforce its order to strike the rule.

Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.