Independent Review Casts Serious Doubt About FMCSA’s HOS Mandate

Posted on February 17, 2011 
Filed Under HOURS OF SERVICE, IN THE NEWS

The American Trucking Association issued a press release today about FMCSA’s new complicated hours of service rules, coming to a highway near you very soon. It says:

“An independent review of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Hours of Service “Regulatory Impact Analysis” has found the Agency wildly overstated the proposal’s benefits. While the agency claims its proposal would result in up to $380 million in annual benefits, an Edgeworth Economics’ independent review finds that proposal would result in net costs, and not benefits, of approximately $320 million a year. The Edgeworth report states “…we find that FMCSA has overstated the net benefits of the proposed rule by about $700 million annually.”

Edgeworth Economics, an internationally renowned consulting firm that’s done work for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the National Football League Players Association, found that FMCSA used questionable logic, inadequate data and sloppy math in attempting to justify its proposed changes to the hours-of-service rules for commercial drivers.

“FMCSA has made a number of substantial changes to its approach since the previous [regulatory impact analysis] issued in 2007,” the Edgeworth report concluded. “We find that, in every instance, FMCSA’s new methodologies and assumptions increase the apparent net benefits of the proposed rule. However, many of FMCSA’s new approaches rely on misapplication of available data, use outdated information, or lack empirical support entirely.”

In addition to being off base by $700 million annually, other notable findings of the Edgeworth study include:

* FMCSA made unreasonable assumptions about the safety of the trucking industry by sampling only carriers it subjected to a compliance review, generally for not following federal safety rules;

* In formulating its proposal, FMCSA used crash data collected before the current rules went into effect, completely ignoring their positive safety impact on the industry;

“Edgeworth’s analysis pretty clearly shows that FMCSA’s proposal isn’t rooted in sound science, good data or logic, and can’t stand up to scrutiny,” American Trucking Associations President and CEO Bill Graves said. “The findings of this study match what we’ve heard from our members and what ATA has been saying since FMCSA launched this ill-conceived overhaul of these rules: As proposed, the new hours-of-service rules would impose significant costs on the trucking industry without improving safety. These rules are a cure for a disease that we don’t have.”

To see the full report go to here.

So here are a few thoughts on this. First, if you’re trying to establish the credibility of Edgeworth Economics, the author of this report, I don’t think I’d bring up the fact they have done work for EPA, who are the kings of junk science. That being said, I’m sure their findings in this case are 100% right on. The FMCSA used “questionable logic, inadequate data and sloppy math” in reaching its conclusions? ATA, you didn’t need to pay Edgeworth to tell you that, I could have told you that for nothing. I agree with the ATA on this one, these new rules are a travesty, and are unrelated to safety.

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