Truck Topics

HOS: How It Impacts You

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently issued a new Hours-of-Service rule that spells out the length of time commercial drivers can operate trucks before they are required to take a break.

The new rule is the product of years of research meant to keep drivers healthy and make highways safer, officials say, and not merely needless bureacratic meddling as many professional drivers would contend.

The new rule replaces Hours-of-Service regulations that were last updated in 2003. Parts of the rule, including the maximum driving time and minimum rest limits remain the same. However, the new rule  includes changes affecting short-haul operators and long distance drivers who use in-cab sleeper-berths for their rest.

As in the 2003 regulations, the new rule prohibits truckers from driving more than eleven hours in a row, working longer than 14 hours in a shift and driving more than 60 hours over a seven day period or 70 hours over an eight day period.  In addition, the new rule requires truckers to rest for at least ten hours between shifts and provides a 34-hour period to recover from cumulative fatigue.

Another change contained in the new rule requires truckers who use sleeper-berths to rest for eight hours in a row, and take another two consecutive hours off duty before resetting their daily driving schedule. Studies show that drivers are less likely to be fatigued if they take a single eight hour block of rest than if they break their rest into smaller periods of time as they were allowed under the previous rule.

The new rule will go into effect October 1, 2005.
For more information, or to review the new Hours-of-Service rule, visit www.fmsca.dot.gov.

Comments

John Pence
FedEx CC Safety Facilitator:

"There have been some concerns from the contractors about the 8 and 2 split. What we're hearing is that most of them feel that they're conditioned to operate
on a 5 hour cycle - 5 on and 5 off.  They feel that they won't be able to sleep for that 8 hour period and that defeats the idea of the new HOS and safety."
 
"We're trying to draw some conclusions as to how these new guidelines will impact our business.  From our end, it will certainly affect the teams and when they can make deliveries. It's going to take coordination between the customers and us, they'll have to understand that these are not our rules.   But, we haven't been able to put together a scenario of what's going to happen.

Lori Blaney
Director of Business Development
Con-Way NOW:

"The majority of our contractors who I've spoken to aren't happy with the changes.  From a team perspective, most of them have been driving a 5 on and 5 off or a 6 on and 6 off.  With these changes, now they'll have to run 8 to 10 hours and they aren't comfortable with that.  Most of them have said, 'yes, we'll do this, but, it will be a change in our business practice.'"
 
"In the case of the teams, it impacts the way they run their business, but with solo's,  it impacts the way we run our business, along with the driver.  In the past, a solo could arrive early for a delivery and get a nap, but now they won't be able to do that without that time counting against them."
 
"I believe that many of our PBO's (contractors) have made comments on the FMCSA ruling and have written letters to the ATA about how this new ruling doesn't really result in any greater safety."

Ed and Michelle King
tractor trailer owner-operator team

"Because we can't run the 5 and 5 that we used to, now it will force us to run tired.  At least before, we had the flexibility to split sleeper time and sleep when we're tired." 

"Now, especially for the single driver who has to make money, he's going to run while fatigued and run another log book." 

Stephanie Gray
Tri-State Expedited Service
Compliance Manager:

"The husband/wife teams are not happy with the new rule and having to drive longer stretches of time.  Before, they had the flexibility to sleep when they needed to.  The single drivers are concerned that they'll be limited to doing strictly shorter loads because of the clock."

Roger Sanders
Straight Truck solo driver:

"Since there's no way to stop that 14 hour clock, that restricts the loads you take.  If they're trying to get trucks off the highway, I think this will have the opposite effect.  They're going to need even more trucks on the road to cover the just-in-time shipments, especially for the automotive manufacturers."

Rich Moore
Straight truck owner-operator solo driver:

"I've already made my comment to the FMCSA about this because it has the potential to put me out of business.  This is going to do the single expediting driver in because he will be forced to do only short runs.  This will effect any type of time-sensitive freight, not just expediting."

"A good example of those runs that would be eliminated under the new rule:  You get a run offer at 4 PM, drive an hour to the pickup, depart there at 6 PM and arrive at the delivery at 2 AM.  You can't deliver until after 6 AM, but if you climb in the sleeper, you can't go back on duty until late in the morning.  I think the consignee probably wants his freight before then."

Scott Hancock
Recruiter
Express-1:

"I feel that the 'safety' groups that lobbied for changes in the HOS regulations have an unrealistic view of the transportation industry.  They have not taken into consideration that the quality of the equipment on the road today does not create the same level of driver fatigue of even twenty years ago. Nevertheless, we find ourselves under even tighter restrictions that before."

"The loss of the ability to 5 hours on and 5 hours off will take much of the appeal out of driving for the husband/wife teams and place a real burden on their operations.  It will actually work against safety because there will be more tired drivers out there now.  Also, this could drive some people out of the expediting business during what so many experts say is a driver shortage."

Jeff Brown
Contractor Support and Development
Panther II Transportation:

"This new ruling is going to force teams to switch from a 5 and 5 or something they're comfortable with to driving 10 hours straight.  I can also see this being a real concern with a single driver who might refuse a 250-mile load early in the day in the interest of protecting his hours.  That hurts his revenue if he doesn't come up with a longer load during the rest of the day and it hurts our availability as well."

"Given the random nature of expedited freight, I feel that the new rule can't help but have a negative effect on the business.  The freight will never line up with that clock that the government wants us all to run under."

Matt and Katy Foscue
Straight truck owner-operator team

(Excerpts from a post in the Open Forums)
"The new HOS ruling is the single biggest issue my wife and I have faced in trucking.  I can't believe that more drivers aren't up in arms about it!..."

"I briefly spoke face to face with my Congressman about the issue and sent him a follow-up letter.  I've exchanged e-mails with our company president and spoke with the head of the log department.  I've e-mailed PATT, CRASH and Public Citizen.  I even managed to slog through the FMCSA website to make a docket posting or whatever they call it."

"Health!?  That's why they did this?  It's healthy to sit in that seat for 10 hours at a pop? C'mon!  I don't mind the 10 hour break all that much.  It's the ten hours of driving I have to do while my wife is getting her break that bugs me."

"It's not that I can't drive ten or eleven hours at a pop, I can and do it all the time on shorter runs.  The longer runs are a different story.  Five hours shifts are easy to deal with - especially when things aren't going so well... bad weather, flat tire, bad roads or just plain not being able to sleep when you're supposed to."

"We're losing a huge amount of flexibility.  Especially teams...especially husband and wife teams.  Like many others, we often both need to be up at the customer.  Our loads require care with the paperwork (her) and care with the loading (me). It's how we provide our customers with the service they deserve and its how we work best."

"Bottom line?  Here how 10/10 works for teams in expediting. There's a sleepy driver behind the wheel, while the co-driver is wide-awake in the bunk staring at the ceiling waiting for the clock to reset and hoping the lead driver doesn't fall asleep."

"Yeah, I know there's an 8 and 2 option. We worked it out on logbooks and it looks like a recipe for extreme fatigue about 18 hours into it."

"We love this job.  Been at it for nearly a million miles now.  Anyone that knows us, knows our enthusiasm. Our 9-5 friends are always jealous of the things we get to do and the places we go."

"I just don't want to face that first 10 hour shift starting at 11:00 pm.  Whether or not I've had enough rest, 10 hours is long time to push through that part of the night."

"Yeah, I know, we'll stop for safety reasons blah, blah, blah... but we all know why that freight is on an expedite truck - especially a team expedite truck. Yeah, we can take a little more time off between runs to build up rest or catch up on rest, but I really don't want to spend any more time in my truck unless it's money time."

"Am I crying wolf?"

"What are you gonna do? Teams?"

"I'll tell you what we're going to do.  We're going to drive legal and safe (somehow) and keep our fingers crossed in hopes that this ruling gets crossed up.  In the meantime, we're updating the resume's and checking out new career opportunities."

"There's a lot of ways to earn a living in this country. I think we can find something new that we'll love just as much as this."