With 1,270 members around our state, the Maine Motor Transport Association is committed to promoting safety within the trucking industry and to making our roads as safe as possible.

Despite assertions to the contrary made in a recent letter, “Driver Fatigue,” Senator Susan Collins is working to help improve highway safety.

Senator Collins, along with a bipartisan group of Senators, has proposed suspending two new rules that were intended to make the roads safer yet they are having the opposite effect.

The new law is, instead, pushing more trucks onto the road during the daytime hours when crash risk is at its highest. This has increased risk, congestion, emissions, delays, and costs to our economy.

Senator Collins is simply asking for a comprehensive study of the public safety impact of these new rules. During this study, her proposal would revert only two restart provisions back to the rules that were in place from 2003 to 2012 — rules that produced quantifiable safety improvements.

The National Fraternal Order of Police recently wrote to Senator Collins in support of her effort which, they say, “only makes sense from a public safety perspective.”

We all want safe roads and safety is the trucking industry’s highest priority. That’s Senator Collins’ priority too.

Brian Parke, President and CEO, Maine Motor Transport Association

Brunswick