One more round for FMCSA's hours rules - Federal appeals court throws out additional driving, weekly restart

摘要

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration may be headed back to the drawing board once again in its effort to adopt hours-of-service regulations that will survive judicial scrutiny. Citing mostly procedural shortcomings, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on July 24 invalidated two significant pieces of the agency's rules - the increase of the daily driving limit to 11 hours, and the 34-hour restart option for drivers' weekly on-duty limits. A three-judge panel also rejected the lawsuit filed by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. With the support of several trucking organizations, OOIDA had objected to FMCSA's changes in how drivers could use sleeper berths for satisfying mandatory rest requirements. On its own, OOIDA also contended that FMCSA failed to deal with loading and unloading issues as required by Congress in 1995, and it challenged the 14-hour window for driving.