New tactics eyed to protect HOS restart

Negotiations have broken down over a potential fix for an error in last year's government funding law that mistakenly blocks the entire 34-hour restart for cumulative hours-of-service limits, the American Trucking Associations says. The measure was supposed to block the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's mandatory consecutive nighttime rest periods in the 34-hour restart unless both FMCSA and the Department of Transportation Inspector General concluded that the requirement results in "statistically significant" improvements in safety, driver health and other goals. Instead, a drafting error blocked the entire restart.

In a March 18 message to members, ATA President Bill Graves said that negotiations among key senators to fix the problem ended without success. With a consensus solution off the table, ATA is now looking for opportunities to insert the missing key sentence into other pieces of legislation.