Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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LEADING NEWS, TRUCKING MARKET CONDITIONS AND INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Ferro defends hours rule F ederal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Anne Ferro persistently defended her agency's hours-of-service rule in a House subcommittee hearing. "No, absolutely not," she said when asked by subcommittee chairman U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) whether she would be open to undoing the rule. The rule has been "upheld by the court. It's based on sound research," she said. Members of the House's Small Business Subcommittee didn't pull any punches in questioning Ferro, who testified at the Nov. 21 hearing dubbed "Wrong Way: The Impact of FMCSA's Hours of Service Regulation on Small Businesses," organized to question the agency's data and methodology, as well as the rule's effects on pay and productivity. The hearing also provided a public evidence gathering for Hanna's TRUE Safety Act bill, which he and two other congressmen introduced in the House. The bill would undo the hours rule change until the Government Accountability Office could study FMCSA's methodology further. Hanna and U.S. Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) were the most vocal subcommittee members, continually trying to point out the detrimental effects the trucking industry says it's experiencing due to the rule changes. U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna took FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro to task in an hours-of-service hearing. Hanna said FMCSA has acted "arrogantly and insensitively" by moving forward with the rule without first performing and using the field study required by the MAP-21 highway funding act passed last summer. The agency, he said, "rushed into" creating a rule that "is inflicting pain on people." Ferro said the agency did not rush the rule and that she stands by its methodology. The rule "absolutely is data-based, research-based, fully vetted, [with an] unprecedented level of transparency throughout the development of this rule process," she said. Hanna challenged that assertion, saying the agency hasn't completed the field study or taken into account the change of driver workload and how it has, in effect, pushed drivers "into hours that are more" congested. "Why is the agency so numb to the industry?" he said. Ferro insisted the agency has a great sensitivity for those in the industry, adding that Congress needs to address the issue of detention time and, more importantly, the lack of compensation for drivers when held for hours waiting to load or unload. "Inadequate compensation – 36 cents Scan the QR code with your smartphone or visit ccjdigital.com/news/subscribe-to-newsa mile for a driver runletters to sign up for the CCJ Daily Report, a ning 70 hours a week – is daily e-mail newsletter filled with news, analyunconscionable," she said. sis, blogs and market condition articles. – James Jaillet Summit: Urgent need for higher highway funding T he Highway Trust Fund likely will be dried up by 2015, and federal and state governments must shore up funding not only for improved infrastructure but also for the overall health of the economy. That was the message of speakers at the Infrastructure for the Future conference last month in Washington, D.C. The event was put on by the American Highway Users and the Volvo Group. Over half of the highway miles traveled in the United States are on roads in less than good condition, said U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Environmental & Public Works Committee. The primary problem with funding is that Highway Trust Fund revenue, based on fuel taxes, is declining. "Guess what's going to be in the Highway Trust Fund for 2015?" Boxer asked. "Nothing." The difference between trust fund receipts and expenditures on highway spending has been $15 billion in recent years, said Bud Wright, executive director of the American Association of State Highway & Transportation officials. COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL – Max Heine | JANUARY 2014 7