Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/687054
Logbook 14 | Overdrive | June 2016 Two paths for changing hours of service regulations have shaped up in Congress. The House is pushing the return of 2011 HOS regs, while the Senate has opted for a more compli- cated HOS future tied to the conclu- sions of a pending U.S. Department of Transportation study. The Senate overwhelmingly passed a transportation funding bill May 19 that would do one of two things. One is to return rules governing the use of a 34-hour restart to those enacted July 1, 2013. The other is to return re- start-specific rules to those in effect in 2011, though with a new 73-hour cap on the amount of hours drivers can work in a rolling seven-day period. The choice of outcome would be based on the conclusions of an unre- leased Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration study on 34-hour Competing hours of service revisions Halting Safety Fitness Determination rule: The House bill would block FMCSA from continu- ing to pursue a new rule to alter the way it rates carriers and determines whether they're safe enough to operate, at least temporarily. The House bill would require the agency to implement widespread reforms to its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program before resuming work on its Safety Fitness Determination rule. Speeding up speed lim - iters: The Senate bill requires FMCSA to publish within six months of the bill's passage a proposed rule to require speed limiters on heavy trucks. The proposed rule has been hung up in the regulatory queue for over a year. Blocking state-enacted breaks: The House bill brings back the so-called federal authority provisions pursued by lawmakers in recent years. The measure would reassert federal authority over intrastate trucking, preventing, for instance, California's enforcement of its state-level laws requiring paid meal and rest breaks. The provisions come in response to court rulings made in recent years upholding meal and rest break laws for truckers, particularly in California, though roughly 20 states nationwide have such laws. Proponents of the measure say it would prevent the industry from dealing with a "patchwork" of state regulations. It also would assert the federal government's authority in governing transportation workers, as spelled out by the 1994 Federal Avia - tion Administration Authorization Act. OTHER TRUCKING MEASURES IN CONGRESS Agency ordered to reimburse CRST for legal costs The U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling May 19 in favor of CRST Van Expedited, a division of CRST International, which is seeking to recover millions of dollars in legal fees. CRST incurred the costs de- fending itself from a lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportu- nity Commission. The court order reverses a decision made by the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals vacating two rulings by lower courts that said EEOC owed CRST $4.7 million in legal fees. The final dollar amount owed to CRST has not been decided, pending further adjudication. Two prior orders made by lower federal courts, however, determined the carrier is owed nearly $5 million in attorney's fees and court costs. The case has been sent back to the Court of Appeals and the District Court to finalize "further proceedings consistent with this opinion," the Supreme Court order says. The case stems from a lawsuit brought against CRST in 2007 by EEOC, which charged that the car- rier violated Title VIII provisions by allowing male instructors to train new female drivers while sharing a truck, saying the practice created a hostile work environment. Several women reported being sexually harassed by their male trainers. All of the claims brought by EEOC were dismissed in court. A U.S. District Court in Iowa ruled EEOC failed to show reasonable cause against CRST and that CRST made good faith efforts to conciliate the claims brought by its driver trainees. EEOC, following several other court stops, eventually withdrew its claims for all but one plaintiff, who settled her case for $50,000. – James Jaillet EEOC in 2007 accused CRST of violating Title VIII provisions by allowing male instructors to train new female drivers while sharing a truck. (Continued on Page 58)