The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has set March 15, 2013, as the date for oral arguments in the case seeking to overturn the Hours of Service rule scheduled to be implemented July 1, 2013.

Both trucking stakeholders, led by the American Trucking Associations, and safety advocacy groups, led by Public Citizen, separately petitioned the court for a review of the new rules shortly after they were published in December 2011.

The court combined the cases.

Both groups will argue before the court March 15.

Of grave concern to the trucking industry is whether the court can rule before the July 1 date.

Industry spokespersons say for the new rule to go into effect and then have the court overturn the rule would create a chaotic situation.

Concerns about the rule differ between the two groups.

Trucking interests are concerned mostly about the revisions for the 34-hour restart provision that would mandate drivers could only use the 34-hour restart to reset their weekly driving limits once every seven days, and the restart time must include two periods between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. And, they don’t like the new provision that would require drivers take a half-hour rest break before driving more than eight hours in a day.

Both portions of the rule would decrease productivity, trucking interests believe.

The safety advocates would like to see the 34-hour restart completely eliminated and they would like to see the daily driving limit reduced from the current 11 hours.