Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/358493
VOICES 4 | Overdrive | August 2014 D iverse news in June vaulted hours of service reform from internal industry debate into the halls of Congress and the wide reach of the general news media. On the U.S. Department of Trans- portation "Fast Lane" blog, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration head Anne Ferro posted on congres- sional efforts relative to the 34-hour restart, pitching to mainstream fears of large trucks. Her piece obfuscat- ed the true nature of congressional efforts underway to pass a hold on 2013-implemented restart restric- tions, pending FMCSA study. Cue an accident that killed come- dian James "Jimmy Mack" McNair and injured "Saturday Night Live" alumnus Tracy Morgan. Mainstream news organizations then picked up on the line towed by Ferro's blog post. Congressional action on the restart restrictions was cast on National Pub- lic Radio as a broad effort to weaken hours rules. Enter the New York Times editorial board: "Drowsy Driv- ers, Dangerous Highways: The trucking industry wants to weaken safety rules." Such broad strokes ran counter to what a majority of readers believed to be the likely re- sult of rolling back the new restart restrictions, however, evidenced by the poll on this page. A former FMCSA administrator came out in support of the effort to suspend the 2013 restart restric- tions, as the Owner-Operator Inde- pendent Drivers Association called for Ferro's resignation, with 9 in 10 Overdrive readers expressing support for OOIDA in that call. Some operators, however, broke with OOIDA to back Ferro in a public letter. They noted her willingness to actually get out and mingle with drivers and learn about issues such as the need for detention pay. Add to all of this a law fi rm's ad in Maxim magazine that featured a Kenworth and the headline "se- rial killer," and many felt that the entirety created an environment to force real issues to the fore. "I believe this entire trail of events has stirred up a passion and an increased thirst for individual understanding of what is going on in our industry," wrote fuel hauler Allen Smith on his Ask the Trucker blog. "It is putting together many of Events spiral into hours confusion Todd Dills What effect would removal of the 2013 34-hour-restart restrictions have on highway safety? A substantial positive effect 58% A substantial negative effect 7% Very little,if any 15% None 18% I don't know 2% There's evidence some understanding has peeked through the typically terrible industry coverage in the mainstream media, even during the height of the hysteria over the crash. Michael Smerconish, in a June 9 "Headlines Redefined" segment on his CNN show, offered the headline above as a counterpoint to the media churn that the Walmart driver in the crash had been "awake for 24 hours." OVERDRIVEONLINE.COM POLL, 1,472 RESPONDENTS