ATA launches court challenge of new US HoS rules

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Canadian Transportation and Logistics Feb 22, 2012

The American Trucking Associations (ATA), not surprisingly, has announced it will challenge the “flawed” US hours-of-service rule that will place greater restrictions on drivers.

The association said today it has filed a petition with the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, asking the court to review the FMCSA’s recently published final rule.

“We regret that FMCSA and the Obama administration have put ATA and its member companies in a position to take this legal action,” said ATA president and CEO Bill Graves. “The rules that have been in place since 2004 have contributed to unprecedented improvement in highway safety. The law is clear about what steps FMCSA must undertake to change the rules and we cannot allow this rulemaking, which was fueled by changed assumptions and analyses that do not meet the required legal standards, to remain unchallenged.”

The ATA went on to say the FMCSA’s own analyses show that the costs created by the new rules outweigh any benefits, which are “overstated” to begin with.

“We need this issue to be resolved in a credible manner, taking into account the undisputed crash reduction since 2004, so we can focus limited government and industry resources on safety initiatives that will have a far greater impact on highway safety,” Graves said.

The ATA said it would prefer the FMCSA to focus on other initiatives, such as requiring carriers to use electronic on-board recorders to ensure compliance with existing hours-of-service regulations and to impose a nationwide speed limit of 65 mph.

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