UPDATE: Driver’s Hours of Service Change Shelved
Due to lobbying from the Teamsters, AFL-CIO and others, US Representitive John Boozman (R-Ark.) has withdrawn HR623, a proposal that was to be attached to the highway bill earlier today.
According to Daphne Izer, founder of Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT), whose son and three friends were killed October 1993 in a crash involving a tired Wal-Mart truck, “What Wal-Mart is seeking will lead to more highway slaughter and more shattered lives. Congress bestows enough gifts on industry as it is. Lawmakers should not give Wal-Mart this gift.” Apparently others thought the same thing as well.
In researching this issue, I found that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are only using the current hours of service as an intrim measure. In July 2004 a federal court struck down the current hours of service. There is a request for comments at the FMCSA site that has a deadline of tomarrow. The court has given them until Sept 2005 to revise the rules to make them consistent with current federal rulemaking procedures.