The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced it will hold a fifth public listening session to hear comments and information on hours of service regulations. The fifth session will be held in conjunction with the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY, on March 26, 2010 at 10 am local time. The agency is holding the listening sessions after a rewrite of the rule was triggered by an agreement between the Department of Transportation and safety advocacy groups.
The safety groups have suspended their legal challenge of the hours of service rules which include the number of driving hours and on duty time of a truck driver. The groups, including Public Citizen, Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety and the Teamsters Union, were challenging the rules on several grounds, asserting for example that they permit too much driving time resulting in sleepy and fatigued commercial motor vehicle drivers at risk for wrecks. Under the agreement, DOT has until next summer to draft a new proposed rule, and until the following summer to publish a final rule.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
