Trump Admin Uses Pandemic To Halt Truck Driver Fatigue Rules

In March 2020, Trump "waived the driver fatigue rules for trucks carrying food, masks, gloves, and other items essential to addressing the coronavirus pandemic."  Six days later, a mother of two and her dog were crushed by a driver 16 hours into his shift.

Investigators said afterward that Singh had been driving for more than 16 hours straight, without rest. Normally, that would be illegal — a violation of federal rules designed to keep trucking companies from pushing their drivers to dangerous levels of fatigue. But that day it wasn’t.

That’s because, six days before the crash, Trump waived the driver fatigue rules for trucks carrying food, masks, gloves, and other items essential to addressing the coronavirus pandemic. Singh’s truck was carrying essential goods, a dispatcher for one of the trucking companies he worked for, US Roadways Enterprises, told the Center for Public Integrity.

.... the administration waived the existing rules for some drivers altogether, part of the raft of temporary moves during the pandemic. The temporary waiver was extended three times, exempting truck drivers delivering essential goods from the fatigue rules through July 14.

Truck driver fatigue rules are among a long list of regulations that Trump has temporarily waived in recent months in the name of addressing the pandemic. 

The administration changed the driver fatigue rules — a move long sought by the trucking industry. The new limits let certain drivers work two hours longer than allowed under Obama-era mandates, extend their workday when driving in bad weather, and count on-duty, non-driving time — such as time spent unloading goods — as a break, among other changes.

“Extending truck drivers’ already highly demanding work days and reducing opportunity for rest will endanger the public,” Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said in a joint statement with two other safety groups and a truckers union in May. “At a time of national crisis, the administration should step up and protect truck drivers.”

Loosening up the driver fatigue rules has been on the trucking industry’s agenda for years. The pandemic gave Trump the perfect opportunity to make it a reality.

Trump entered the White House promising to roll back rules. The pandemic has given him the perfect chance to do that.  Since Trump declared the coronavirus a national emergency in March, the White House has signed off on or is reviewing 247 temporary or permanent regulatory actions....

The driver fatigue rules are among a long list of regulations that Trump has temporarily waived in recent months — including measures directly related to the public health crisis, such as rules preventing telehealth, and measures not-so-related, such as rules governing the enforcement of environmental regulations — in the name of addressing the pandemic.

Since Trump declared the pandemic a national emergency, he and his administration have been exploiting the crisis.  While nobody’s looking, they are pressing ahead hard.

As Trump signed his executive order... directing federal agencies to find emergency deregulations they could make permanent, he turned to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. “Good luck,” he said. “It gives you tremendous power to cut regulation.”

At the same event, Chao underscored the administration’s close relationship with trucking companies.

“At the president’s direction, we have reached out to the trucking industry on an unprecedented basis, listening to your concerns, providing regulatory relief,” Chao said.

Corruption in plain sight which is to be expected from Mitch McConnell's wife. 

Regulation matters!   Check out this whole package about it from Vox and the Center for Public Integrity here: https://www.vox.com/2020/6/30/21295779/trump-system-failure

“It’s really been a full-on attack by the Trump administration,” said Matt Kent, regulatory policy associate for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group that has led criticism of Trump’s deregulation agenda. “It makes it less safe to go outside, less safe to be in your workplace, less safe to drive a car, less safe to breathe the air.”

Source: https://www.vox.com/2020/6/30/21303842/trump-deregulation-coronavirus-public-health-rules