We support several non-profit truck safety organizations such as Citizens For Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH), Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT) and Public Citizen, who all keep a very close watch on state and federal regulations affecting the trucking industry. They are very proactive in supporting good law, promoting truck safety, and fighting bad laws which make our roads and highways more dangerous. Believe it or not, U.S. legislators in 2005 approved a new law called the Trucker Hours-of-Service Rule, which we feel creates a more dangerous environment as it increases the amount of hours a trucker can drive without a break and the overall hours they can drive weekly.

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

• Drivers may drive up to 11 hours in the 14-hour on-duty window after they come on duty following 10 or more consecutive hours off duty.
  
  
• The 14-hour on-duty window may not be extended with off-duty time for meal and fuel stops, etc.
  
  
• The prohibition on driving after being on duty 60 hours in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours in 8 consecutive days, remains the same, but drivers can "restart" the 7/8 day period anytime a driver has 34 consecutive hours off duty.
  
  
• CMV drivers using the sleeper berth provision must take at least 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth, plus 2 consecutive hours either in the sleeper berth, off duty, or any combination of the two.

Missing from the new rule is a much needed requirement to monitor actual truck driving hours by electronic onboard recorders which would allow for effective enforcement of the rule.

Stop Playing Games with Our Safety
The administration is continuing its push to expand the NAFTA trucking program --
despite Congress de-funding this program specifically in an appropriations bill
President Bush signed into law.
Tell Congress: No NAFTA Trucks on Our Highways
Public Citizen: Stop Nafta Trucks

President Bush is going ahead with a dangerous program to allow Mexico-based trucks to have full access to U.S. roads despite Congress pulling the plug on the funding for the NAFTA pilot program. On February 15, 2008 the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration silently revealed on its website that twelve more trucks from Baja would be allowed full access to roads in the United States without adequate measures to ensure public safety.

According to Public Citizen, Congress has repeatedly demanded that the Bush administration must ensure the public’s safety before completely opening the border to Mexico-based trucks. One of those requirements was that the administration must conduct a study with Mexico-based trucks and drivers that pass muster under U.S. safety standards, but the administration has failed to meet those obligations. The so-called pilot program has been criticized by safety groups as a sham. Public Citizen, the Teamsters, and other groups argued against the program in federal court, citing numerous violations of repeated congressional mandates, including the recent spending bill.

Public Citizen has launched a campaign to stop NAFTA trucks, featuring a YouTube video explaining the problems of the NAFTA trucking pilot program and ways for the public to take action to demand Congress stop the Bush administration from breaking the law.