U.S. Legislative News

FMCSA Holds Public Listening Session on Possible Changes to Current Hours-of-Service Regulations

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently held a listening session to gather feedback on Hours-of-Service (HOS) regulations in an effort to alleviate unnecessary burdens on commercial vehicle drivers.
The specific areas under consideration include:

• Expanding the current 100 air-mile “short-haul” exemption from 12 hours on-duty to 14 hours on-duty, in order to be consistent with the rules for long-haul truck drivers
• Extending the current 14-hour on-duty limitation by up to two hours when a truck driver encounters adverse driving conditions
• Revising the current mandatory 30-minute break for truck drivers after eight hours of continuous driving
• Reinstating the option for splitting up the required 10-hour off-duty rest break for drivers operating trucks that are equipped with a sleeper-berth compartment

NAFA Members who have comments on the HOS revisions are encouraged to contact NAFA’s U.S. Legislative Counsel Pat O’Connor at poconnor@nafa.org.

U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement Set to Replace NAFTA

U.S., Mexican, and Canadian negotiators announced on October 1, 2018, that a “new NAFTA” agreement was reached after a year of difficult talks. Renamed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the pact keeps the North American supply chain largely intact, even as it raises the regional content requirements for autos. (Also see Canadian Legislative News in this newsletter.) To qualify for duty-free movement across the three countries’ borders, vehicles will need to meet the following requirements:

• Seventy-75 percent of a vehicle’s content must originate in one of the USMCA countries – up from the 62.5 percent regional content requirement under NAFTA
• Starting in 2020, 30 percent of vehicle production must be done by workers earning an average of $16 per hour – in 2023, the production percentage increases to 40 percent (intended to encourage production in the U.S. or Canada, where wages already exceed this level)

Importantly, even if the Trump Administration carries through on its threat to impose a 25 percent tariff on automobiles and auto parts imports for national security purposes, USMCA-qualified parts and vehicles may continue to receive duty-free treatment. Also, for vehicles that do not meet the stricter new rules but do meet the previous NAFTA content requirements, the regular 2.5 percent duty rate would continue to apply up to a specified quota based on the previous production.

Some analysts predict the new rules will increase the price of vehicles. Car manufacturers continue to assess the implications of the new agreement, evaluating potential strategies to adjust to the revised rules.

The agreement is expected to be officially signed by the three countries in late November with Congressional consideration in 2019.

 

NHTSA Held Public Meeting on New Car Assessment Program

A public meeting took place earlier this month in the form of a listening session to consider recommendations on how best to improve the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). NCAP crash tests new vehicles, rating them with one to five stars based on how well they protect occupants in frontal, side, and rollover crashes.

While representatives of safety groups and auto groups highlighted the significant role NCAP has played in providing consumers with important safety information and incentivizing manufacturers to place the latest safety technologies in their vehicles, they also called for the addition of new metrics for rating vehicle safety.

NCAP currently considers crashworthiness and rollover safety in its vehicle tests, but it does not consider metrics such as crash avoidance technology or advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) when evaluating its five-star ratings.

In remarks before the panel, Peter Kurdock of Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety (an alliance of consumer, health, safety, and insurance companies focused on crash prevention) urged the agency, “to include currently available technologies that have already been proven to have substantial safety benefits in the rating program. Research conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has demonstrated that current ADAS such as automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, blind spot detection, and rear automatic braking have safety benefits by reducing crashes.”

 

DOT Issues New Document on the Future of Transportation Automation

The Department of Transportation (DOT) issued Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0, a new document detailing the Department’s comprehensive and multimodal approach to the future of autonomous vehicles.

AV 3.0 outlines six principles upon which to shape automation policy and five implementation strategies to ensure those principles are incorporated in federal automation policy in the future. Those principles include objectives to prioritize safety, remain technology neutral, modernize regulations, encourage a consistent regulatory and operational environment, proactively prepare for automation, and protect and enhance the freedoms enjoyed by Americans.

According to DOT, extensive stakeholder engagement from manufacturers and technology developers, commercial motor carriers, infrastructure owners and operators, the bus transit industry, and state and local governments contributed to the formulation of the document and the development of a policy framework for facilitating the safe integration of automation into the transportation systems.

AV 3.0 discusses the role of federal, state, and local governments in automation and offers best practices and considerations for supporting automotive research and development and removing barriers to innovation.

In an opening statement, DOT Secretary Elaine Chao stated that “the integration of automation across our transportation system has the potential to increase productivity and facilitate freight movement. But most importantly, automation has the potential to impact safety significantly – by reducing crashes caused by human error…and saving lives.”

To view AV 3.0 and learn more about the DOT’s approach to an automated future, please click here.