ATA to Congress: Reject ‘patchwork of state scheduling rules’

Officials of the American Trucking Associations Thursday Feb. 25, called on Congress to reject what it says are “efforts by organized labor and trial attorneys that would impose a patchwork of state scheduling rules” on the trucking industry.

“A single set of consistent and fair regulations is essential to the trucking industry,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “Language currently being discussed by Congressional leaders would ensure that drivers operate under a consistent set of break rules. That’s what Congress sought to establish with a 1994 law, and recent interpretations of that law by the courts are threatening that consistency.”

In a statement issued Thursday, the ATA said:

“Language in the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 made it clear states are not permitted to institute rules governing the trucking industry because Congress wanted the industry to operate under a single, uniform system from coast-to-coast rather than a confusing and inefficient patchwork of state laws. However, some states – notably California – a handful of courts, and aggressive plaintiffs’ attorneys are refusing to faithfully uphold that goal of one country, one set of rules.”

“If lawmakers do not address this overreach by the states and the courts, they will destroy the unified national rules that Congress intended trucking to operate under,” Graves said.

Read coverage by “The Hill” of one California senator’s slam of the proposed legislation.