Trucking | New Hours of Service rules back on the drawing board.

US News Article | Reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday threw out federal regulations that allowed truck drivers to be on the road longer without taking a break, ruling the government failed to consider the impact on drivers’ health.

“We hold that the final rule is arbitrary and capricious because the agency neglected to consider a statutorily mandated factor - the impact of the rule on the health of drivers,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said.

The court sent the rules back to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for reconsideration.

So, now what?

The new rules, which took effect in January, would have allowed truckers to work a 14-hour day with up to 11 hours of consecutive driving.

Previously, truckers were prevented from driving more than 10 straight hours.

The government concluded the rules would provide commercial truck drivers with a work and rest schedule that would significantly reduce driver fatigue.

Consumer group Public Citizen challenged the rules in court.

What’s this mean? Do we start driving under the old rules again till FMCSA comes back with something that will make everyone happy? Even though it says that some consumer group “Public Citizen” were the ones that challenged the rules, I personally think PATT (Parents Against Tired Truckers) and CRASH (I forget and I can’t find them, but it’s another consumer group against trucking.) are responsible. The rules they came up with are ludicrous. Crazy things like Shutting all trucks down at night and only driving 8 hours a day. That would destroy trucking and shutdown the economy. Think there’s a driver shortage now?

Between Congress looking at the new rules - Congressional Subcommittee to Study Proposed Hours-of-Service Changes and the courts changing them, this is going to go on for a long, long time. FMCSA no matter how hard they work with the best of intentions for everyone, someone’s not going to be happy. Then they are going to find a judge that is sympathetic to their cause and it will start all over again.