Sam Cohen - Comments

This comment is in regards to the Hour of Service of Drivers, docket number FMCSA-2004-19608-3487. This rule proposes to change the driving and resting hours required of truck drivers throughout the United States. This rule will essentially require drivers to rest more. This sounds beneficial to a fast paced, focus-required profession of truck driving; however, it will lead to increased shipping costs for individual shippers as well as major corporations. The current regulations in place have reduced truck caused and even truck involved wrecks throughout the nation's roads. These new regulations attempt to tell drivers when to stop and rest and when to drive. Consequently, each driver is on a different schedule and different route with different destination and different cargo. This means that drivers need the ability to modify their driving and resting schedule without the impediment of new government rules requiring them to rest at certain points. These new rules impact a very critical industry in our country; just about everyone in the United States relies on trucking about every day. Our very economic system is heavily reliant on trucking and to try to modify a system that is already in place and proving to be very successful, seems like a waste of federal government hours. Do not pass these rule changes. Allow hardworking Americans to continue to facilitate the flow of goods across our country's highways.