By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Agricultural groups are hoping the federal government will allow an hours of service (HOS) exemption for the distribution of anhydrous ammonia to retailers. The exemption is considered important because of the added costs to haulers if it isn’t restored.

“In our situation we’re quite different from the long-haul trucking,” said Charles “Shorty” Whittington, an anhydrous ammonia hauler from Columbus, Ind. “If we lose this ag exemption, it’ll be a real cost to the agricultural community.

“It’s a really big deal in our operation. The majority of (anhydrous shipping) happens during the planting season and harvesting season. There’s no give in the timeline there. You have a lot of retailers that have very limited storage capacity.”

He said unlike long-haul truckers, haulers of anhydrous have plenty of opportunity to stop and rest. Whittington delivers his product to retailers throughout the upper Midwest and Kentucky.

Until recently the transport and delivery of anhydrous ammonia has been included under the ag exemption, even for deliveries to retailers, as opposed to farms. According to Fletcher Hall, a consultant for the agriculture industry, about a year ago the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) decided that maybe anhydrous ammonia deliveries would no longer be included under the ag exemption, unless the product was being delivered directly to the farm.

However, the DOT has proposed a two-year exemption from HOS rules for anhydrous ammonia transportation and delivery only, as long as the product is for agricultural use.

Last month more than a dozen ag and transportation groups sent a letter to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a part of DOT, to urge that the two-year exemption be granted – and be made permanent.

“We believe that the agency is being too limited in proposing a two-year period,” the letter states. “These (time) constraints have existed in the agricultural industry supply chain for many years and have only gotten worse, not better, so they are likely to continue for many years into the future. ... This issue is not a short temporary issue to be covered by a two-year period. Further, since the data indicates that such an exemption will not come at the detriment of safety, a more permanent exemption is reasonable and justified.”

Hall said although the exemption is still in place for other farm supplies, he has some concerns the exemption for other agricultural products could be removed in the highway transportation bill, which is still in Congress. “We don’t believe they should be selective in what farm supplies they should be concerned about because the law says ‘all farm supplies,’ not just anhydrous ammonia,” Hall said.

According to the letter, a 90-day waiver from the HOS rules was granted for the distribution of anhydrous earlier this year, but that waiver expired June 21. To learn more, visit http://federalregister.gov/a/2010-17138