Fox guarding the chicken coop approach to regulation from the Democrats?
It seemed like a victory for safety advocates when the Obama Administration agreed to review the rule that increased the hours truck drivers could be on the road while reducing their rest time.
Critics have contended since 2003 that this Bush Administration regulation increasing driver hours was bad policy that would lead to more accidents and fatalities.
However, when the Senate unanimously confirmed Anne S. Ferro as Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator last week, the Administration put a former trucking association executive and lobbyist as the head of truck safety at the Department of Transportation.
It appears that Ferro’s selection goes against President Obama’s decision to limit the ability of lobbyists to enter government as high officials and influence policy from within.
Ferro was president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association during the six years before her appointment. Moreover, the association supported the increase in driver hours.
During Ferro’s Senate confirmation hearing, which featured the usual tough posturing but ultimately agreed to her appointment, she said she would be a “fair and balanced regulator” and use a “data-driven, sound scientific research” to decrease truck and bus crashes.
Ferro now leads FMCSA just as a court order requires it to review its rulemaking on truck driver hours of service – the most controversial issue facing the agency since it pits the profits of big trucking firms against your well-being on the nation’s roads.
There are more than 5,000 fatal truck accidents every year or about 15 people die each day, every day.
Safety advocates were outraged, to put it bluntly and perhaps mildly, over the appointment, likening it to the fox guarding the chicken coop.
The rule in question significantly expanded driving and working hours by allowing truck drivers to drive up to 11 consecutive hours, instead of 10, during each shift and by cutting the off-duty rest and recovery time at the end of the week from a full weekend of 50 or more hours to as little as 34 hours.
Courts repeatedly vacated or voided the rule because the government did not adequately consider the effects of longer hours on traffic safety and driver health, but the Bush Administration just reissued the same rule in 2004 and again in 2007.
This past March, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., threw out the hours-of-service rule for the third time after a lawsuit brought by Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
The court ruling requires the government to draft a new proposed rule governing hours of service within nine months and to publish a final rule within 21 months.
At the time Jackie Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety said, “Every day, truck drivers fall asleep in their cabs, and all too frequently the results are catastrophic. Unfortunately, these incidents and crashes don’t garner the same government attention and action as airline pilot fatigue. The DOT needs to reform the hours-of-service rule for truck drivers because longer operating and working hours have serious health and safety consequences for workers and the public.”