HOS Rules are Working but Need Flexibility, ATA Tells FMCSA

ARLINGTON, Va., April 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Current federal Hours of Service (HOS) rules, which govern the durations that a commercial driver can be on duty and behind the wheel, have played a role in improving highway safety. However, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) should modify the sleeper berth provision to allow for additional flexibility to further improve driver alertness, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) said today in comments submitted to FMCSA.

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Extensive federal data shows that trucking industry safety performance has improved substantially since 2004, when the basic framework for the current HOS regulations took effect. The most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) indicate that the truck-involved fatality rate declined 12.3 percent in 2008 to 1.86 per 100 million miles, from 2.12 per 100 million miles in 2007. This decline marks the largest year-to-year drop ever and the fifth consecutive year the fatality rate has dropped. Persons injured in large truck crashes went from 44.4 per 100 million miles to 39.6, an 11 percent reduction. Since 2004, the number of large truck crash injuries per 100 million miles has dropped 25 percent and the truck-involved fatality rate has dropped 22 percent. The fatality rate has dropped 66 percent since the DOT began keeping those records in 1975 is now at its historical low.

To better address the true causes of fatigue in transportation, FMCSA should focus its resources on:

1. sleep disorder awareness, training and screening;
2. promoting the use of fatigue risk management programs;
3. evaluating the use of fatigue detection devices;
4. increasing the availability of truck parking on important freight corridors, and;
5. partnering with the trucking and shipping communities to develop an educational process that identifies for drivers the location of available truck parking.

ATA's comments are in response to questions posed to participants during the five public listening sessions held around the country as FMCSA again considers HOS changes requested by special interest groups.

The American Trucking Associations (www.truckline.com) is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences, and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States. Follow ATA on Twitter @TruckingMatters (www.twitter.com/truckingmatters),  or become a fan on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/y4qwp6h).

SOURCE American Trucking Associations