| Groups Challenge
Dangerous Rule That Dramatically Increases Working Hours for
Professional Truck Drivers |
| By JD Nutt, Web Editor |
| From the RD
News Desk |
| Report Last Updated: 12.31.2008 |
|
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The federal
government should reconsider a seriously flawed regulation that can
compel professional truck drivers to work and drive 19th century
sweatshop hours, four major safety organizations said. The groups –
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Public Citizen, the Truck Safety
Coalition and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters – filed
a petition for reconsideration with the administrator of the Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). |
|
In a “midnight” final rule published on Nov. 19,
FMCSA ignored two court decisions that have been issued since 2003. The
first decision found that the agency had not adequately taken driver
health into consideration. The second decision vacated the two
provisions of FMCSA’s revised 2005 final rule that raised the limits
for daily and weekly driving and on-duty hours. Although courts have
twice ordered the agency to reconsider the rule, FMCSA has re-issued
virtually the same rule after each court order. |
|
The final rule, which will take effect on Jan. 19,
the last day the current administration is in office, allows truckers to
drive up to 11 hours in a single shift, while driving 88 hours or
working 98 hours over eight consecutive days. |
|
“Under this rule, companies can force interstate
truck drivers to work and drive grueling hours that are unheard of in
other U.S. workplaces in the 21st century,” said Joan Claybrook,
president of Public Citizen and former administrator of the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “These trucks are rolling
sweatshops.” |
|
“FMCSA simply disregarded scores of studies
conducted over more than 30 years showing that this incredibly demanding
working and driving schedule will lead to exhausted truck drivers who
literally can fall asleep at the wheels of their rigs,” said
Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto
Safety. “This final rule is utterly irresponsible and has been issued
in open defiance of the court’s findings in back-to-back decisions.” |
|
Added John Lannen, executive director of the Truck
Safety Coalition, “FMCSA has issued a regulation that just doesn’t
care about the health and safety of truck drivers, much less anyone else
sharing the road with them. The agency attempted to justify this
bankrupt regulation by manipulating the enormous body of facts and
science that clearly shows that truck drivers, like other workers,
cannot perform safely day after day, week after week, under these
incredible working schedules. This rule threatens the personal safety of
everyone on America’s roads.” |
|
The petition asks FMCSA to reconsider the regulation
based on numerous errors and misrepresentations of research findings
clearly showing that much longer working and driving hours will
inevitably produce severely fatigued drivers who also can suffer serious
health problems from excessively long working hours. |
| “Congress created FMCSA on Jan. 1,
2000, to make trucking safer, but the Bush administration used the
agency to make it more dangerous,” said Teamsters General President
Jim Hoffa. “FMCSA was so eager to carry water for the trucking
industry that it ignored mountains of scientific evidence that driving
longer hours increases the risk of a crash.” |
| Report Source(s): |
| http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2789 |
