By Timothy Cama – Washington D.C., Oct. 9 – A coalition of interest groups relied on faulty arguments that were often out of context and used little or no data in their objections to a recent truck driver hours-of-service rule that kept both the 11-hour workday and the 34-hour restart, American Trucking Associations told a federal court last week.
The groups, led by Public Citizen, used “misinterpretations, non sequiturs, statements torn from context, unpreserved arguments, and conclusory assertions backed by only occasional — and misleading — citations to actual data,” ATA said in its brief, which defended the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in the interest groups’ lawsuit challenging the 11-hour day and 34-hour restart provisions.
More about the HOS Ruling from CDL Life
More about Trucking Industry Regulation from CDL Life
FMCSA’s decision to preserve the 11-hour day “did not result from the application of a faulty legal standard,” ATA told the court. The agency used proper discretion in concluding that any safety benefits of a 10-hour driving day would be offset by the cost of losses in productivity, the group said.