The American Trucking Associations (ATA) is applauding a proposed bill that would put the brakes on the new hours-of-service restart provision that was implemented in July.
"When the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration went ahead with its changes to the restart rule, it did so without waiting for essential research to be completed," said ATA president and CEO Bill Graves. "This bill would simply do what should have been done in the first place: delay implementation until we really know the true operational impacts, costs and safety benefits."
The bill, H.R. 3413, would stay FMCSA's restart changes until the Government Accountability Office completes a full assessment of the data and rationale the agency used in issuing its rule. The ATA says the provision is already disrupting the trucking industry, adding a study by Schneider National has found productivity has declined 3-4% since the changes went into effect in July.
"We had hoped FMCSA would've listened to reason when we asked them to delay initially, but we hope they'll listen to Congress and rethink these changes," Graves said.
