The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has released findings of its assessment of the Regulatory Impact Analysis used by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to justify changes to the Hours-of-Service 34-hour restart provision, which took effect July 1, 2013. ATRI’s analysis was based on industry survey data of over 2,000 commercial drivers and 500 motor carriers, as well as a detailed analysis of 1.4 million driver logbooks from more than 40,000 commercial drivers.
The ATRI analysis quantifies that FMCSA’s purported industry benefit and actual costs resulting from the restart changes differ by more than $322 million. Identified were several flaws in the FMCSA Regulatory Impact Analysis, including the reliance on driver logs from carriers undergoing compliance reviews and safety audits, which ATRI says skewed the data toward drivers operating at the higher limits of available hours. In addition, ATRI pointed to the assignment of industry costs associated with the change to only 15% of the driving population, ignoring operational changes and associated costs, which are likely to be experienced by a much larger percentage of drivers.
The changes to the Hours-of-Service rules includes two new 34-hour restart provisions, which limit use of the restart by truck drivers to one per week (168 hours) and a requirement that the restart include two overnight periods from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.