Hours of Service Update

Posted on December 5, 2011 
Filed Under HOURS OF SERVICE, IN THE NEWS

The new hours of service rules will be announced any day now. Just in time for the holidays. Merry Christmas from your friends at FMCSA! The GOP House held a hearing, highlighting the expense of this new rule, and its lack of safety benefits. All for show, of course. The GOP had their chance to pass a law years ago when Bush was in the White House cementing the current hours rules in place, but did nothing. Now, Obama and his merry Marxists are in control, and there’s no stopping them.

What will the new rules be? No one knows for sure, but it’s probably a pretty safe bet there will be a 10 hour driving rule, instead of 11. Also, they will probably go ahead with their stupid revision of the 34 hour reset to the 70 hour rule, effectively making it a 48 hour reset. God knows what else they’ll do. The day after the new rules are issued, ATA is going to file suit, arguing the new rules are unjustified, and will actually not prevent accidents, but cause more accidents. They’re right. I think there’s a 50-50 chance they’ll forge a standoff in the courts forcing FMCSA to keep using the current rules, but no one knows if that will happen, or when.

Undoubtably, they’ll be a phase-in period before FMCSA starts issuing fines for the new rules. I assume, however, they will continue to instruct their State cops and highway patrolmen to keep writing violations, without fines, which will hurt everyone’s CSA scores. Since everyone is compared against everyone else in CSA, it’ll be important to teach your drivers the new rules faster than your neighbor, or your CSA scores are going to be wrecked. Furthermore, you’d better scrutinize your violations closely, as the cops are going to make lots of mistakes, as the new rules will almost certainly be very complex.

Court action is not the only thing which could stop the new rules. The GOP Presidential candidates have been making noise about stopping the Obama orgy of regulations. Will they follow through if elected? Probably not, unless it’s Ron Paul, in which case he’ll probably just fire everyone at FMCSA. Nevertheless, if the current Depression continues, a new President may put the brakes on the government. At any rate, the new rules should be released within days, so stay tuned.

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