The American Trucking Assns.  urged the Obama administration “to live up to its promise to relieve the burden  of unnecessary regulations” as it considers changes to the hours-of-service  rules.

“Late last year, DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety  Administration (FMCSA) proposed costly changes to truck drivers’  hours-of-service rules which, if finalized, would result in reduced wages for  hundreds of thousands of drivers, significant administrative and efficiency  costs for trucking companies, and most importantly, billions of dollars in lost  productivity,” Dave Osiecki, ATA senior vice president of policy and regulatory  affairs, wrote in a letter to Cass Sunstein, administrator of the Office of  Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget.
“These inefficiencies and costs would deal a serious and  sustained blow to the huge ‘tangible goods’ economy that trucking supports,  affecting not only shippers of freight, but ultimately consumers.”

Proposed after political pressure from outside groups, the  FMCSA’s proposed rule would enact drastic changes to driver’s lifestyles and  carrier operations without providing any safety benefit, Osiecki charged.

“DOT described its proposal as a means to further improve  trucking’s highway safety record.  Yet, FMCSA’s own regulatory impact  analysis showed that the proposal’s costs outweigh any potential crash  reduction benefits,” Osiecki wrote.

The current hours-of-service rules, in place since 2004, he  said, have allowed for trucking to move 70% of the nation’s goods and achieve  record low levels of crashes and fatalities.

“On Aug. 31, 2011, FMCSA released even more evidence  demonstrating that compliance with the current HOS rules is ‘strongly  correlated with crash rates.’” Osiecki wrote. “In other words, carrier  compliance with the current rules is directly linked to safer trucking operations.”

Sep  9, 2011 10:25 AM, By Deborah Whistler, contributing editor

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