By Shelia Watson
Contributing Writer

A federal appellate court has cut an hour from the amount of time truck drivers can be behind the wheel per day and revoked a minimum break of 34 hours between long-haul trips.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in July handed down the ruling, which becomes effective in mid-September. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel overturns major portions of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours-of-service rules, resetting the daily driving limit to 10 hours from an earlier maximum of 11.

The decision also revokes the 34-hour “restart” option for weekly on-duty limits but does not establish any other requirement in its place.

The court allowed the previous on-duty time limit of 14 consecutive hours to stand, as long as the number of hours spent actually driving remain at the 10-hour limit. But the court denied a petition to allow team drivers to split their rest periods, which had been allowed prior to an initial August 2005 ruling.

The case originally was brought to court by the advocacy group Public Citizen and the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, which challenged the 2005 ruling on the grounds of safety concerns. The court’s ruling was based on the FMCSA’s failure to provide a reasonable explanation for certain parts of the crash-risk model that had been used to justify driving time increases.

The FMCSA said in a statement that it is “analyzing the decision to understand the court’s findings as well as determine the agency’s next steps to prevent driver fatigue, ensure safe and efficient motor carrier operations, and save lives.”

The ruling is the latest in an ongoing battle between the courts and the trucking industry.

The FMCSA sought in 2003 to increase the number of hours truckers can drive, but the D.C. appellate court struck down the decision the following year, and Congress reinstated it later that year. In 2005, the FMCSA issued a new set of rules, which were identical to what had been presented in 2003 with the exception of a change in a sleeper berth provision.

On Aug. 31, the American Trucking Association, which supports the existing 11-hour rule, asked the court to stay its decision and keep the current rule in effect. The ATA also requested a proposed rule addressing the safety issues identified by the court within 60 days of the final rule.

The ATA argued that implementing changes in the trucking industry would be impossible to achieve immediately and could be costly. In addition, many shipping industry experts say limiting truckers to one less hour of driving time per day could affect the trucking industry’s productivity in a significant way.

ATA President Bill Graves pointed out in a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation that the latest ruling removes a percentage of productive driving time and that “there likely will be disruptions in the supply chain, our economy will suffer and the highway safety implications (will) become an unreasoned variable.

“This ruling and other issues like the truck driver shortage and the whole issue of truck productivity—in a broad sense—impact our ability to have the capacity and the people and equipment to get all the freight moved that needs to be moved,” he said.

Graves also cited the DOT’s truck-related fatality figures for 2006, which showed a decline in fatalities of 4.7%, the largest drop in 14 years. That was the first full year truckers worked under hours-of-service regulations.

The FMCSA has proposed other measures to ensure safety. Earlier this year, the agency unveiled a proposal calling for motor carriers who repeatedly violate the hours-of-service rule to be required to carry electronic onboard recorders to monitor their performance. The onboard recorder technology would not be enforced industry wide.

“(The proposal) will be targeting the worst offenders … Companies with a history of serious hours-of-service violations will be required to install (electronic onboard recorders) in all of their commercial motor vehicles for a minimum of two years,” FMCSA Administrator John Hill said when the proposal was presented.

The FMCSA’s definition of “worst offenders” includes those with a rate of violation greater than 10% in a two-year period. Based on FMCSA records, about 930 carriers with 17,500 drivers would be affected immediately.

The proposal provides incentives for other carriers to use the device voluntarily, including such measures as exemption from hours-of-service documentation requirements and from random inspection of drivers’ records of duty status.

“If a company decides to use EOBRs, we will not require them to keep hours-supporting documents, except for those things that show the essential,” Hill said.

Speaking at a conference of fleet executives and trucking suppliers in Hilton Head last month, Dave Potts, director of safety and operations for ATA, said any changes to the hours-of-service rules could affect whether and when the onboard recording system is implemented. 

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