Beware misleading polls, ATA warns

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ARLINGTON, Va. — American Trucking Associations CEO Bill Graves is urging policymakers in the US to ignore the results of a recently released push poll on trucking hours-of-service rules.

“The results of a misleading push poll should not be taken into consideration when crafting public policy – good data and research should be. Unfortunately, FMCSA did not have such information – such as the impact the rules would have on increased daytime truck traffic and the corresponding elevated crash risk – when they drafted them,” Graves said.

Graves pointed out the push poll results would be different if respondents understood the true ramifications of the new HoS rules, which require truck drivers to reset their hours over two consecutive overnight periods.

“We doubt any poll respondent would support these new restrictions that discourage drivers from taking lengthy rest periods, and that increase daytime truck traffic and raise crash risk,” Graves said.

He cited a recent Public Opinion Strategies Poll of 800 voters who were asked ‘Would you prefer that trucks generally operate at night between midnight and 5 a.m., or during late morning and mid-day hours?’

“This legitimate poll, in addition to finding that most Americans rightly believe that professional truck drivers are the safest drivers on the road – a point even conceded by our critics – found that Americans would prefer trucks operate at the time of day now restricted by FMCSA’s recent rule changes by a 67-24 margin,” Graves said.

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