FMCSA STANDS BY HOURS RULE
In similar letters to several different companies and organizations, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Aug. 20 declined to reconsider various aspects of the new hours-of-service regulations that are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 4.

Among the petitioners was Wal-Mart Stores, which wanted FMCSA to reverse its decision to require that all driving be completed within 14 hours after the workday begins. Several other organizations also sought relief from that provision. Others wanted to exclude utility service vehicles from the new rule, allowing them to continue operating under current rules as motorcoach operators will be allowed to do.

In each of the letters, FMCSA said that it had compared the relief sought to the core goals in the hours-of-service rulemaking: improved safety, more opportunity for rest, movement toward schedules closer to the body’s 24-hour clock, practicality, uniformity and enforceability.

“The breadth and diversity of commercial vehicle uses and users means that any set of regulations will have a variety of impacts, depending on the type of motor carrier operation,” said FMCSA Administrator Annette Sandberg in each of the eight letters denying petitions for reconsideration. “FMCSA believes the new rule strikes the appropriate balance between practicality, uniformity and enforceability, while at the same time improving safety for all.”

In the letters to Wal-Mart and others who specifically objected to the 14-hour rule, Sandberg said that “the various elements of the Final Rule form a single, interlocking unit. The new rule was carefully designed to take into account our data that the 14-hour limit could not be altered or replaced without undermining the very benefits in fatigue-reduction the new rule seeks to establish. Moreover, allowing carriers to decide which time provisions were to apply would seriously complicate and undermine effective enforcement of the rule.”

Although utilities lost their bid for reconsideration, they have won a victory. The House Appropriations Committee in July approved a transportation funding bill that blocks FMCSA from changing the hours-of-service regulations on drivers of utility service vehicles.

What they wanted
The following are the eight petitions for reconsideration denied by FMCSA Aug. 20 and a brief summary of each. The documents are available by searching Docket No. 2350 at this site. To find the most recent documents, including the denials of the petitions, click the “Reverse Order” button at the bottom of the results page.