Hours of Service update enacted

Excerpt from Transport Topics article:

The clarification of an hours-of-service rule for truckers in a short-term funding bill was signed by President Obama shortly after the Senate cleared the bill Dec. 9 and a shutdown of the federal government was averted.

The bill’s enactment solidified a win for trucking executives critical of hours-of-service policy. The so-called fix to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s HOS rule was sought successfully by American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear and his team on Capitol Hill.

“Thanks to hard work by congressional leaders of both parties and in both chambers, we are one step closer to having an hours-of-service restart rule that makes sense and puts safety first,” Spear said after the Senate vote.

Opponents of the HOS provision argued the bill would potentially result in a greater number of fatigued truckers on highways. Responding to critics, Spear said: “This issue has been out there. To suggest that this is any way a partisan issue — it’s been well-vetted.”

See the full Transport Topics article online.