Today, leaders ofAmerican Trucking Associations again called on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and ccc to swiftly address the mounting problems caused by changes to the hours-of-service rules.
"From the outset, ATA was confident the hours-of-service rule changes were based on politics, not data," said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. "Well now we're seeing mounting evidence that rather than solving anything, these rules are creating many problems for drivers and fleets alike."
"I've seen the impact these rules have had on my fleet, and clearly I'm not alone," said ATA Chairman Phil Byrd, president of Bulldog Hiway Express. "We've seen the Wall Street Journal document the impacts twice in less than a week, the American Transportation Research Institute publish evidence of the costs and additional challenges caused by these rules and tomorrow Congress is going to put these regulations under the microscope.
"By now it should be clear that these rules were a mistake – everyone can see it," Byrd said. "FMCSA should listen to the facts and rollback this ill-advised rule."
Graves called on Congress to support the TRUE Safety Act, a bill introduced by Reps. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), Tom Rice (R-S.C.) and Michael Michaud (D-Maine) to stay the new rules until an independent review can be completed.
"The TRUE Safety Act will put the brakes on these rules until they can be thoroughly vetted," Graves said. "We're confident that once they are independently and objectively reviewed, FMCSA will have no choice but to undo what it has done."
