Your view: Rules set balance

The new federal rules updating 60-year-old regulations governing the number of hours commercial drivers can operate their trucks each day will save hundreds of lives, safeguard billions of dollars in commerce and improve the safety of our highways for years to come. The new "hours of service" rules make good safety and economic sense, contrary to the headline in your Jan. 4 article, "New trucking rules could impact costs."

The true cause of driver fatigue is the length of a driver's work day, not just the amount of time he or she spends on the road. That's why the U.S. Department of Transportation's new rules reduce a driver's work day by an hour, while allowing more of that time to be spent on the road, where most drivers earn their living.

The science behind the new rule is strong. Drivers' schedules are no longer based on a 1930s-era concept of what a work day should be. Instead, scientific evaluations of the body's natural sleep cycle, known as circadian rhythms, have been combined with years of analysis of real-world working conditions for the benefit of the nation's 11 million commercial drivers and the safety of everyone on our nation's roads and highways.

This rule strikes the right balance between protecting truck drivers and other motorists and provides operators the flexibility they need to keep America moving. As a result, 75 lives will be saved and 8,226 fatigue-related crashes will be prevented every year, numbers that add up to safer highways for all of us and a $628 million-a-year savings to our economy.

Sincerely,

Robert Jr. Johnson Jr., assistant to the secretary,

U.S. Department of Transportation

Washington, D.C.