CVSA and Advocates urge repeal of agriculture and utility HOS exemptions
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) released a strongly-worded letter to the leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee formally urging them to repeal the driver hours-of-service exemptions for agriculture and utility drivers and adopt a proposal that any segment of the trucking industry that has previously received a safety exemption, whether by regulation or statute, be required to re-apply for such exemption through the regulatory process.
SAFETEA-LU, the multi-year, omnibus transportation authorization adopted in 2005, exempted agricultural carriers from the hours-of-service regulations if they operated only within a 100-mile radius from their central base of operation. It also exempted utility service vehicle drivers from all hours-of-service regulations. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center found that crash rates, violations and out-of-service rates for these two industry segments have increased substantially since the exemptions became effective after the passage of SAFETEA-LU.
“It is clear from the Volpe Center safety performance data that the safety record of these industry segments is increasingly poor and, therefore, they should not be exempted from the hours-of-service regulations,” said Stephen F. Campbell, Executive Director of CVSA.
Jacqueline S. Gillan, Vice President of Advocates, emphasized, “These industries are operating vehicles on the roads and streets that all of us and our families travel every day. Many operations of these industry segments occur disproportionately on lower-class rural roads, and data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicate more crashes occur on these roads than on urban roads or interstate highways.”
The letter also emphasizes an allied concern that the increased number and variety of exemptions granted through federal legislation in recent authorization bills has increased the difficulty of law enforcement officials to properly enforce commercial motor vehicle safety regulations so that they can ensure the highest level of truck, bus, and motorcoach safety on roads and streets.
CVSA is an international not-for-profit organization comprised of local, state, provincial, territorial, and federal motor carrier safety officials and industry representatives from the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety is a coalition of consumer, medical, public health, and safety groups, and insurance companies and organizations, working together to advance improved highway and auto safety public policies on the nation’s roadways.
To view the letter, visit: cvsa.org/news/documents/T&ILetter_Exemptions_Final.pdf.
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