House Bill Maintains 34-Hour Restart Suspension, Rejects Insurance Increases

June 12, 2015

The House has passed its Transportation-Housing spending bill that includes two provisions related to the trucking industry.

First, the bill requires that before the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s 34-hour hours-of-service restart rule is reinstated, a study must be conducted demonstrating the rule leads to significant improvement in safety, operator fatigue, driver health and work schedules. The hours-of-service restart restrictions originally imposed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in July 2013 but was suspended in December 2014 pending further review.

The bill also blocks the DOT from issuing a rule that would increase insurance requirements for carriers. FMCSA has looked at increasing insurance requirements to as much as $4.5 million per truck for general freight and up to $10 million for petroleum marketers from the current $750,000 in liability insurance for general freight and $5 million for gasoline and other hazardous materials.

The Senate will mark up its version of the bill in the coming weeks. The White House has said it opposes the trucking provisions and has threatened to veto the bill.

Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman's photo

Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman

Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman develops and executes communications strategies to advance NATSO’s public relations and advocacy goals. Tiffany also develops and oversees partnerships related to the NATSO Foundation’s public outreach initiatives. Tiffany lives in the D.C. metro area with her husband and their two sons.More

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