I happened upon this Interstate Truck Driver's Guide to Hours of Service today. Published by the FMCSA, it provides a nice introduction to HOS for people who are new to the topic and a nice review for more seasoned expediters.
Thanks for the link, I bet a bunch would be helped by that info.
Yes that's great info for the driver, but. Oct 30 is when the President ( yes O'bama himself) is supposed to make a decision and sign into law the new hrs of service regulations. So I would not etch this into memory until then. If it goes back to 10 hrs driving like they say then the trucking industry will be in complete cayose. It might help the expedite industry somewhat but I don't think by much.
I might ad that OOIDA and the ATA have a lawsuit to block it, so it's up in the air.
Even though you vcan drive eleven hours now there are no ways to stop the clock and once you begin the day it keeps going.
After making the above post, I did a quick check to verify the Oct. 28 date and found this four-hour-old story:
FMCSA's Ferrro uncertain if new HOS rule will be out by Oct. 28
As I said above, it never ends.
Nor do I expect it to end. Whether it operates under a Democratic or Republican president, the FMCSA is one of the most incompetent agencies in the federal government.
I would not mind if they changed the HOS, if they would at least alow you to stop the clock for breaks. Even though you vcan drive eleven hours now there are no ways to stop the clock and once you begin the day it keeps going. There are times when I have 5+ hours of on duty not driving and I lose my driving time. E logs are coming to most carriers now and there is no way of lying on those.
We can still use a split sleeper berth that doesn't stop the clock, but bumps it forward, provided the first break is at least 8 hrs. Which makes it pretty much worthless.
Especially for using the break to avoid big city rush hour, as I always did prior to the first change of HOS.