Court of appeals denies petition for hours-of-service review

July 28, 2022

Jami Jones

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The flexibility afforded to truck drivers in the most recent revision to the hours-of-service regulations will remain. That follows a decision to deny a petition for review of the rule changes by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The petition for review of the final hours-of-service rule, which took effect Sept. 29, 2020, was filed by the Advocates for Highway Safety, and other groups in September 2020. The case was put on hold during the transition between presidential administrations. The case was argued on April 25.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association worked with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on the hours-of-service reforms. The Association filed to intervene in the case before the U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit. They were allowed to split FMCSA’s time in oral arguments to present the arguments of drivers.

History of the case

Prompted by an OOIDA petition from February 2018, FMCSA made four changes to the hours of service in an attempt to give truck drivers more flexibility within the rules.

  • The short-haul operations provision increased the on-duty limits from 12 to 14 hours and from 100 air-miles to 150.
  • The 30-minute break provision was modified to allow on-duty, nondriving events, such as fueling or inspecting the load, to meet the requirement.

The rule changes also included changes to the adverse driving provision and split-sleeper options, but those updates are not being contested in court.

The lawsuit was filed shortly before the rules took effect in September 2020 but was put on hold early in 2021 to give a new administration time to familiarize itself with the case. The lawsuit resumed late in 2021.

The Teamsters, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways and Parents Against Tired Truckers call the changes “arbitrary” and say the agency didn’t consider the risks caused by provisions involving short-haul and rest breaks.

FMCSA responded by claiming the petitioners lacked standing by not even attempting to identify members who have suffered harm from the rule.

The agency also argued that changes were incremental and implemented after careful review.

The decision

The Court of Appeals three-judge panel, while somewhat critical of FMCSA, acknowledge the agency’s due diligence in considering driver health and safety in its denial to review the regulation. Although in at least one case the court noted the agency cleared the legal minimum hurdle.

“While aspects of the administration’s analysis and reasoning leave much to be desired, at bottom, the administration sufficiently explained and factually justified its conclusions that the new short-haul exemption and the 30-minute break requirement would not adversely affect safety, driver health, or regulatory compliance,” wrote Circuit Judge Patricia Millet wrote in the opinion for the court.

The D.C. Circuit denial of the petition leaves the current hours-of-service regulations in place. LL

Editor’s note: Senior Editor Mark Schremmer contributed to this article.