Speaker Boehner Joins in Call to Retain Current Truck Driving Hour Rules

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) wrote to President Obama this week to urge him to keep the current Hours of Service rules for truck drivers in place. This action follows a similar letter sent last week by House T & I Chairman John Mica (R-Fla) and other members of the T&I Committee leadership expressing concern about the proposal to alter the existing rules. AGC also opposes the proposaland wrote to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration pointing out that these changes are unnecessary given the significantly improved truck safety record since the existing rules were put in place. AGC’s comments on the proposed rule change recommended the following: maintain the construction exemption but increase the distance coverage to a 100-air-mile radius, continue to allow 11 hours of driving time in each driving window, continue to allow the existing 14 hours maximum on-duty time within driving window, “on duty” time for construction drivers should not include waiting time to deliver product. FMCSA’s proposed rule suggests the following changes: • Reduce maximum driving time within each driving window from the existing 11 hours to 10 hours. • Reduce maximum on-duty time within each driving window from the existing 14 hours to 13 hours. • Limit allowed consecutive hours of driving to 7 hours or less following the last off-duty period of at least 30 minutes. • Define on-duty as not including any time resting in a parked Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV). Action on the rules are pending and could be released at any time. For more information, please contact Brian Deery at (703) 837-5319 or deeryb@agc.org.