The Agricultural Retailers Association is defending the U.S. Department of Transportation’s regulatory Hours of Service agricultural exemption against claims by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) that the HOS exemption has resulted in higher crash rates and is unsafe.
Current law exempts agricultural carriers from the hours-of-service regulations if they operate only within a 100-mile radius from their central base of operation. It also exempts utility service vehicle drivers from all hours-of-service regulations.
CVSA, an international not-for-profit organization comprised of local, state, provincial, territorial, and federal motor carrier safety officials and industry representatives from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, issued a press release on April 22 saying the hours of service agricultural and utility exemptions should be repealed. CVSA cited a recently released study by the U.S. DOT’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center that found that agricultural carriers operating exclusively within a 100-mile radius had a 19 percent higher crash rate than agricultural carriers operating outside a 100-mile radius during the period of 2005-2007. CVSA said the study also saw utility service motor carrier crash rates jump by 40 percent during this same period.
CVSA said the study further showed that in 2007, agricultural carriers as a whole had 32 percent higher violation and out-of-service rates than the rest of the trucking industry in the categories of unsafe driver, driver fitness, vehicle maintenance, and improper loading. CVSA said agricultural carriers operating solely within a 100-mile radius had 24 percent higher violations and out-of-service rates than those operating outside of a 100-mile radius in the categories of unsafe driving, driver fitness, vehicle maintenance and improper loading.
“Since driver related factors are such a large contributor to crashes, it stands to reason that the hours-of-service exemptions provided in the last Highway Act are largely responsible for the increased rates,” said CVSA Executive Director Stephen F. Campbell. “Safety is clearly compromised by these exemptions and they should be repealed in the upcoming Transportation Reauthorization Act.”
CVSA is also proposing that all motor carrier safety exemptions, whether provided in statue or by regulation, should be sunsetted “on a date certain in the future.” Any group reapplying for an exemption would have to demonstrate to the DOT that “such exemption would likely achieve a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level that would be achieved absent such exemption,” CVSA said.
ARA said it questions CVSA’s attempt to link the HOS exemption to the agricultural industry’s slightly different safety record. “If this ag exemption is repealed by Congress, it will make it more costly and difficult for the agricultural industry,” ARA’s Richard Gupton told Green Markets. “This would adversely impact the timely delivery of crop input supplies and delay getting crops in the ground which would impact crop yields and our nation’s food, feed, fiber and biofuel production. ARA will strongly oppose any effort to repeal the HOS ag exemption. We have been visiting with members of Congress and their staff to educate them on the importance of this exemption.”
ARA said Congress is working to pass a new surface transportation authorization bill before the current authorizations expire on Sept. 30, 2009.