Audio mailbag: FMCSA ‘barked up the wrong tree’ with 2013-implemented restart changes

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Updated Jan 6, 2015
Parking and hours of service
“If FMCSA has made changes to the hours of service that improve safety, then why did the NTSB recommend that Congress audit their entire program?” –James Getten, commenting on FMCSA’s hours impact study via Overdrive’s Facbook page

In the wake of Congressional efforts to force a stay on the 2013 restart provisions this week, readers weighed in on their view of the so-called Collins amendment to force a stay on the restart restrictions introduced in 2013.

Generally, sentiment showed favor for the amendment, tracking closely with results of the above poll conducted during the last, early-summer round of Congressional efforts to stay the 1-5 a.m. periods required of the current restart as well as its restriction to use only once per week..

Readers also fired hard against continued hours of service changes in the face of a variety of other more pressing issues for on-highway operators. As noted Jeramie Reed of Double Springs, Ala., the new restart restrictions have had the effect of removing a modicum of flexibility from a rule already hampered by the 14-hour clock, the biggest flexibility reducer.

Ultimately, he noted, the agency should give more discretion on hours-of-operation choices to the professionals:

Call 530-408-6423 anytime to weigh in with a message.

“If you want to make it right, let us do our job the way we know how to do it.” Tune in to numerous other voices in the Audio Mailbag podcast below.

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