There has been much debate over the proposed hours of service (HOS) rule that would result in a reduction of hours 
drivers are allowed on the road.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is pushing for the proposal to be passed while groups such as the American Trucking Associations (ATA) are against it, claiming that the current rules are working just fine and continuing to improve safety. A reduction in driving time would only make it harder for carriers to fulfill shipments, lead to further capacity issues, and would require more drivers when there is already a shortage.
The FMCSA is trying to justify passing the new rules by claiming that 13% of crashes are caused in some part by fatigue and that reducing the amount of hours a driver is allowed on the road would help solve this problem and increase safety.
The ATA, however, claims that the FMCSA has manipulated “its own crash numbers to make driver fatigue seem like a more significant cause of truck crashes so its new hours of service proposal could pass the required cost/benefit analysis,” nearly doubling the statistic from the 7 percent figure that the FMCSA had always claimed to be accurate (http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=72688).
According to truckinginfo.com, the ATA believes that the numbers are inaccurate since the FMCSA “overstated the percentage of single-vehicle truck crashes (which are more likely to be fatigue-related) compared to multi-vehicle crashes” by “doubling the weight given to single-vehicle truck crashes” as well as “treating any crash in which fatigue is listed as an “associated factor” as a fatigue-caused crash.”
Stay up-to-date on the HOS proposal by visiting www.roadscholar.com.
Tags: American trucking Associations, ATA, crash statistics, fatigue, federal motor carrier safety administration, FMCSA, HOS proposal, hours of service, road, rules, safety, scholar, tractor-trailer, transport, truck
