Next fight over regulations could center on trucker driving limits

By Keith Laing - 09/28/11 03:11 PM ET

The partisan battle over the role of government regulations could move into a new lane soon as a group of Republicans pushes President Obama to make a U-turn on an effort by his administration to place new limits on the number of hours truckers can drive long-distance cargo hauls.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has eyed changing hour-of-service rules for truckers for the better part of two years, but the agency is set to finalize new limits next month. Under the proposed changes, the window in which drivers can work would be allowed to exceed 14 hours only twice a week, and they're time on duty would be capped at 13 hours.

Under the proposal, driver's behind-the-wheel shifts would be limited to 10 or 11 hours.

But House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and a trio of other Republican lawmakers have indicated they are going to do everything in their power to stop the changes.

"We are very concerned the proposed changes will result in additional trucks and drivers on the road to deliver the same amount of freight, adding to the final product costs and increasing congestion on our already overburdened roads," the group, which includes Mica and Reps. Bill Shuster (Pa.), John Duncan (Tenn.) and Sam Graves (Mo.), wrote last week in a letter to President Obama.

"In our enormous, consumer-driven economy the last thing our government should be doing is artificially increasing the costs of almost every consumer good with unneeded regulation," the letter to Obama continued. "As such, we will aggressively oversee any attempt by the U.S. DOT to impose new regulatory burdens on the trucking industry by making changes to the current hours of service rules."

The Department of Transportation has said that the changes are designed to remove tired drivers from the road, lowering the risk of accidents.

"A fatigued driver has no place behind the wheel of a large commercial truck," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement released when the rule-making procedure was launched in December of 2010. "We are committed to an hours-of-service rule that will help create an environment where commercial truck drivers are rested, alert and focused on safety while on the job."

The Republican lawmakers argued the current rules were effective enough in dealing with fatigue, however.

"We have not seen any evidence that the current hour of service rules, in place now for more than seven years, are unsafe and need revision," they wrote. "In fact, quite the opposite is true. Since implementation of the current rules, there has been a reduction in severe and fatal crashes involving large trucks, even as truck mileage has increase by almost ten billion miles.

"The current rules are clearly having a positive impact on highway safety," the lawmakers said in their letter.

The new rules were originally scheduled to be finalized in July, so another showdown between the House GOP and the Obama administration could be just around the corner.