Top U.S. Trucking Group Supports New Hours Rule; ATA Says Regulation Passes Common Sense & Safety Tests

    ALEXANDRIA, Va.--April 24, 2003--The American Trucking Associations (ATA), the nation's largest trucking industry trade and safety organization, today announced its support for a new federal Hours-of-Service rule.
    The proposed regulation by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) would set new on-duty and rest time guidelines for commercial motor vehicle operators for the first time since 1939.
    "This is a package that our members can work with," said Bill Graves, ATA President and CEO. "We have worked hard all along for a rule that is a good mixture of common sense and sound science. It will allow us to meet the real world operational needs of the trucking industry and most importantly, do so safely."
    The FMCSA rule has cleared a required independent comprehensive cost-benefits analysis. It reflects components of an earlier ATA proposal by increasing the amount of rest time for professional truck drivers and promotes the body's natural 24-hour Circadian rhythms, as opposed to the current rule which is based on an 18-hour day.
    David McCorkle of McCorkle Truck Line, Oklahoma, former ATA Chairman and head of its member-based Hours-of-Service Committee at the height of the rules debate, said: "It's not everything we wanted, but it is a much better rule than we had three years ago. We can live with this one."
    "Additionally," says Graves, "the rule is easy to understand, easy to comply with, and easy to enforce--three principles that reflect ATA's position on this important safety issue."
    Today's debut of the Hours-of-Service rule follows this week's report of preliminary numbers by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that showed while the total number of highway-related fatalities increased from 2001 to 2002, the fatalities from large truck crashes dropped to 4,902 in 2002, a 3.5 percent decline from the previous year.
    This marks the first time since 1995 that the number of fatalities from large truck crashes has dropped below 5,000. Trucking was the only highway-user group to show a decline in the number of fatalities due to crashes.
    The rule also matches changes being considered in Canada, offering the potential to further promote highway safety and trade between the U.S. and Canada, our largest trading partner.
    Gerald Detter, president and CEO Con-Way Transportation Services and co-chair of ATA's Trucking Executives Leadership Council during its successful campaign against the 2000 Hours-of-Service reform plan, said: "This rule gives credibility to the trucking industry. We meant it when we asked for real Hours-of-Service reform to improve the safety of our workplace--the nation's highways. We're now on target."
    "The need for practical, modern Hours-of-Service rules is something on which every carrier, every state and region came together," said Rick Todd, president of the South Carolina Trucking Association and National Chairman of the Trucking Association Executive Council, representing ATA's fifty affiliated state associations. "Our diversity became our strength and the message got through."
    "These new guidelines will allow the trucking industry to do what we do best--move America's freight safely and efficiently," concluded Graves.

    (See Truckline.com for summary chart of new Hours-of-Service rule.)