Personal Injury Blog

FMCSA Agrees to Revise 11-Hour Trucking Rule in Light of Accident Risks

October 29th, 2009

As California truck accident lawyers, we watched in dismay as the Bush Administration passed a trucking rule that extended the maximum number of consecutive hours that a trucker could drive to 11.  This new legislation was severely criticized by trucking accident attorneys around the country, truck safety groups and families of truck accident victims. Now there is reason to be encouraged. The Obama administration has said that it will revise the rule.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Monday signed an agreement with consumer groups, the Teamsters union and others promising to revise the 11-hour rule. Since that rule was passed in the last days of Bush administration, these groups have fought to challenge it. The Federal Motor Carrier says it will revise the rule and come up with a new rule in its place. There is no indication yet on what kind of hours the new rule will include.

The Bush Administration rule increased consecutive hours from 10 to 11 on each shift, and cut down the rest period for the end of the week from 50 or more hours, to as little as 34 hours. Truckers as a result, now spend up to 17 more hours behind the wheel than earlier, an increase of more than 25 percent over the previous 10-hour rule.

Truck drivers’ unions have been enthusiastic supporters of lowering trucking hours. Truckers today are under constant pressure to drive more hours, and make more deliveries. Not surprisingly, increased working hours for truckers means greater profits for trucking companies. One estimate put the industry’s losses from a potential one-hour loss per shift, at $2 billion per year. It’s no wonder that the trucking industry has come out strongly in defense of the current rules. The American Trucking Associations has said that the new rules have actually contributed to a decline in the number of accidents.

The FMCSA agreement to revise the rule comes at an odd time. The agency is soon to welcome a new administrator.  Anne Ferro will likely soon become head of the FMCSA. Ferro was earlier president and CEO of the Maryland Motor Truck Association. In that capacity, she strongly supported and defended the 11-hour trucking rule. One of the setbacks of Ferro’s confirmation is that in her past she was a trucking industry lobbyist and strong support of the 11 hour trucking rule. This information about her past has caused California truck accident lawyers and truck safety groups, grave concern. It will be interesting to see how Ferro deals with the FMCSA plans to revise the rule.

Driver fatigue contributes to thousands of trucking accidents every year. While the trucking industry may continue to insist that fatalities involving large commercial trucks are on a decline across the country, the fact is that we lose about 5,000 people to tractor trailer accidents every year. Those numbers must drop, and going back to the 10 hour rule would definitely be a firm step towards meeting that goal.

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