It's a Team's Life
The Sky is Falling…
During the past two years the Hours of Service have been discussed at town square meetings, during truck shows and on talk radio, and all asking for driver feedback. The town square type meetings were held in various places across the United States and also allowed drivers to call in and state their thoughts. One of these sessions was held in Des Moines, IA and had many drivers speaking that attended the meeting and also those who called in. I was able to listen in on this session for several hours while driving and found the dialog very interesting.
The Trucking Solutions Group invited Joe Rojkovacz from OODIA to discuss how to send in our letters and get the most for our time. Joe had some really great ideas and as a group we sent in a letter, and then each of us individually sent in another letter giving real world examples of how many of the rules would hurt our business.
Now the HOS have been published with the first rules having a compliance date of February 27th, 2012. While all of the rules did not come out how we wanted them we will make the best of what we will have to work with. Our philosophy is to make lemons into lemonade.
One of the rules we liked over all with a few minor tweaks was the ability for a team driver to sit in the passenger seat for two hours either right before or after the team drivers eight hour break in the sleeper. We liked the ability to sit up front, but would have liked to be able to split the time. One hour when done driving to update our co-driver on the past 11 hours and one hour before starting to get an update on the road conditions and chance to prepare for our drive shift.
The change to the other rules will not come into affect until July of 2013.
Another rule that was slightly changed was the ability to drive 11 hours which is a rule we like. The biggest change to the HOS is that we now have to take a mandatory ½ hour break within seven hours of drive time. At first glance this does not seem like such a big deal and for most it is not. In our line of work this ½ hour was one of the items we fought the most against.
The ½ hour break was a huge concern as both of us would be required to be off duty and many of the loads we haul require one of us to be on duty at all times unless in an approved safe haven. When the final HOS were published we were pleased to see an exemption for drivers hauling certain explosives. We will still have to stop in a safe area and during the ½ hour break cannot be working. We can use this to our advantage and stop and eat or have a snack inside of the truck.
The other rule that got our attention was the 34-hour restart. After much discussion and looking at our hours driving we are not too concerned about this rule. We will go back to using the recap to keep track of our hours and using the hours gained back when sitting waiting for a load to compensate for not having a restart. We are sure at times the restart will be a thorn in our side but not as often as we first thought it would.
The ½ hour break requirement for loads that are not a particular hazmat but require constant surveillance are going to cause another type of problem. These loads are going to require that every seven hours a truck will be required to find a safe haven and take their break. How is this to be done? There are many people scrambling to figure this one out before July 2013.
Bob & Linda Caffee
Leased to: FedEx Custom Critical 

TeamCaffee

Saint Louis MO
Expediters 7 years been out here on the road 12 years
Expediting isn't just trucking, it's a lifestyle; 

Expediting isn't just a lifestyle, it's an adventure;

Expediting isn't just an adventure, it's a job;

Expediting isn't just a job, it's a business.