The American Trucking Associations is suing the Department of Transportation on proof of hours-of-service rules. In the lawsuit filed January 19, 2010, the association asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to order DOT to issue a notice of proposed rule-making within 60 days on the supporting hours-of-service documents carriers must keep and how long they must be kept. Typically, those documents include not only driver log books but fuel and toll receipts, dispatching records and many other papers and, increasingly, electronic data. DOT is working on a rule that could require electronic onboard recorders on trucks.
The lawsuit by the trucking industry against DOT may be in retaliation as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration began hearings on the hours of service (HOS) rules. The ATA supports regulations issued by the Bush administration in late 2008, which the FMCSA is now conducting safety hearings on the expanded hours of duty and drive time and the safety risk to the motoring public. The FMCSA in November said it would release a proposed HOS rule this year and a final rule by August 2011.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2010
