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FMCSA proposes hours-of-service changes
December 23, 2010
| by: Avery Vise
Under a long-awaited proposal from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, truck drivers couldn’t drive more than seven hours without a break, would have to rest for at least one hour during their 14-hour driving window and could only reset their weekly on-duty limits with a 34-hour restart that includes two nighttime periods.
FMCSA released the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to modify drivers’ hours-of-service regulations on Dec. 23.
One of the big questions had been whether FMCSA would reduce the number of driving hours allowed between off-duty periods from the current 11 to 10, but the agency chose not to decide, saying it would settle the question following public comment. The agency did say, however, that it is leaning toward reducing the driving time limit to 10 hours.
Regardless of the number of hours allowed per shift, FMCSA’s proposal would place new restrictions on drivers’ workdays. Under the current rules, drivers can conduct nondriving work after the 14-hour window for driving time. FMCSA now proposes to require that drivers’ work days end immediately following the 14-hour window and that there can be no more than 13 hours on-duty during that window. Put more simply, drivers would have to take at least one hour off duty during their driving shifts.
In addition, FMCSA proposes to require that drivers take a break of at least 30 minutes before driving more than seven hours straight.
Another concern in the trucking industry was whether FMCSA would increase the number of hours required to restart the 60 hours in seven days/70 hours in eight days limits on cumulative on-duty time. The agency proposed to leave the restart at 34 hours but with a significant restriction: Restarts would have to include two periods of midnight to 6 a.m. In addition, drivers would be explicitly limited to a single restart in a 60- or 70-hour period; current regulations don’t restrict the number of restarts.
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This doesn’t look any better than what we already have. And I don’t see anything addressing the sleeper berth issue.
They’ve made it so complicated it will take an attorney to figure it out…which is what they
want…so tickets can be written…and it’s hard to find places to rest now…dumb a@@ politicians…and bureacrats…making rules for
something they know nothing about…and the
railroads are in on this…trying to screw their competition by pushing these changes through…(probably with some under the table
money being passed around..)
well leave it to the goverment to screw up the trucking industry some more these people have no clue about truckdriving that bitch they have incharge of the fmsca is just trying to make a name for herself and screw these safey advocacy groups they have no clue let me take over the fmsca and ill clean up the trucking industry and will all make money
Of all the dim witted ideas. theses new rules will not work. Able to log on duty not driving while at the dock up to 16 hours but not legal t
o drive after 14hr HOW THE HELL do you leave .JUst leave the hours the way thet are. Dont want to hire a damn Lawyer to do my log book.
First of all it has nothing to do with safety. It is all about politics and money. This is Obama’s way to create more jobs to make himself look good, and the Union wants fewer driving hours so they can put on more drivers which means more Union Dues for the Union. It has been proven that the current HOS has brought forth fewer accidents involving a commercial vehicle and the mojority of those accidents weren’t even the truck driver’s fault. Lesser hours driving time means more trucks on the road which means more new drivers which means more accidents. They just need to leave everything alone. If the FMCSA is concerned with safety, they need to improvise the HOS for bus drivers which currently only have to have an 8 hour break and drive 10 hours. You would think they would want a bus driver carrying 50 passengers to have the proper rest. I realize there aren’t near as many buses on the road but 1 accident involving a bus can result in 50 deaths. The FMCSA just needs to quit playing politics and leave the truck drivers alone. I would be willing to bet that none of them have ever stepped foot in a truck!
Steve,
I don’t think there has been a consensus opinion concerning the current HOS rules having anything to do with the reduction of accidents or deaths. If you recall the new HOS rules were implemented alongside of a huge comercial vehicle compliance enforcement and new comercial vehicle accident investagation policies and procedures punctuated with: increased fines, penalties, State and Federal poplicies penalizing class A drivers only.
Over my 40 years of trucking the government seem to make and change thies laws to sute there needs not ours they need to leave it at the 11 hrs and stop medaling with thing they kno nothing about and whats up with this sleep ackina Im not a big guy but does it include city and state employees also theres some driver i see driving state vehicles who are fat and what about fat police officers they look like they mite fall asleep.
AS they try to perfect a nonprefect world, it gets to be unreasonable.
you got jokers working dc that never stepped in to truck trying to regulate truck driving ask these idiots if they will work for minimum wage
with no pay increase in dc
well here we go again with changing the hos they just dont understand how it is out here unless you are a truck driver just more changes what next you cant eat fast food
I think that EVERYONE in D.O.T and FMCSA need to get off there butts and away from there desk,, they need to come out here on the road for a few weeks and talk to us drivers and see what we want. WE ARE THE REASON FREIGHT GETS MOVED and why common ppl have what they need and want!!!!! We the DRIVERS have to put up with STUPOD drivers ( which each state needs to educate these ppl on semi’s)) then we have road conditions, not just snow n construction but so called pot holes,( its hard to sleep when ur a team driver and all u can feel when ur co driver is driven is bumps, which can shack you out of the sleep.!!! They need to talk to us drivers and see what we want and need!!! They don’t need to make excuses up for us until they have been on a truck for a few weeks!!!!
HaHa..HOW YALL LIKING THIS NEW HOPE N CHANGE THING NOW? Remember America,ALL the Good things in your store..A TRUCKER BROUGHT IT TO YOU!! All truckers need to band together n quite paying any taxes until the states get their roads repaired properly so we can spend less on truck repairs!!
i have been in trucking for 25years and heard my dad say this in the 70′s and i say the same thing today,If all of us truckdrivers just parked all of our trucks for 1week then we would get washingtons attion and they would relize just how much they need us!But see most of these truckdrivers-they call themselves-say they can not afford to take a week off but they will sit for 3or 4 days waiting on a load.So whats the differance?You know it’s not the drivers washinton should messing with shippers&recivers should have rules aswell.Is what we as drivers should do is try and get some stucture and stand firm and just let washington expline to little jonny why he cant have milk for his ceral because the truck did not bring any milk.No matter what anybody says America Needs trucksperiod. And unless we as truckers stand up and stop letting washington tell us when to work when not to work and how much money we can or can not make we will get nowere.I mean look at law enforcement they have to make the same life or death dission as us truckers and they can work 100 200 300 hours a month and their days are alot longer then what washinhton says. So it is all up to us if we dont get their att. ten they will keep doing this to us.Beacuse they know that all we are gona do is bitch and mone about it and do nothing about it.
Amen to the comments thus far. I have been a driver for nearly thirty years and have seen nothing but screw-up after screw-up coming from Washington. If the idiots in Washington were really interested in and concerned about HOS, they would require shippers to be responsible to load the truck and receivers to be responsible to unload the truck. Why should it be the drivers responsibility to break down the pallets? We didn’t order it and we aren’t shipping it. Drivers are required to spend entirely too much time supervising the loading and unloading that could be spent resting. It’s just like the requirement for a $100 dollar background check to have a HazMat endorsement. Do these morons really think that a person who wants to do evil is going to care if they have a CDL, much less a HazMat endorsement? All it accomplishes is taking money from my family. We just have entirely too many idiots in Washington that couldn’t even figure out how to start a truck, much less drive one safely.
Well, certainly nothing “big”, this time. What’s next? First, leave the re-start rule alone. The Unions and the ATA are AGAINST the re-start rule. Why? who knows. Of course we all know the ATA is only a “mouthpiece” for all the large companies and has never supported the smaller companies or owner operators. As for the union? Ha! never considered them truck drivers anyway> leave the rules as they are. We have finally adapted to them. The main problem with them is we can no longer take an hour off to sit down and eat without logging on-duty, not driving. Or if we do log off duty, it still counts as part of the 14 hour day. Folks with “regular” jobs don’t get credit for their hour of lunch(paid for it) so why are we penalized? Makes no sense. Everyone wants to make rules for things they know absolutely nothing about. Remember the old saying, “walk a mile in my shoes”? Well, try it, then come talk to US, the drivers, about your “safer rules”. Get the “idiots” in the cars educated, the 80 year olds in the RV’s trained, the shipper and receivers held accountable, and leave the rest to us. THEN you will have a well working, safe and profitable (for all concerned) trucking industry.
The onus should be upon the trucking companies to implement logistics ensuring a driving time is productive. I still question why truckers are exempted from the Fair Labor Standards Act. Of the 22 years I trucked, 18 years was long haul and 4 years were LTL freight hauling. I made more money and never felt the fatigue and stress I did as a long haul driver. It is just ridiculous to not demand fair wages, why are so many truckers more akin to a voluntary slave than an employee?
I can agree with most everything i’ve read from
everyone elses comments.I served 10 years in th
e Marine Corps,and sometimes it really makes me
wonder why I bothered,so i can sit and watch th
e country i love,and served go down the toilet,
the only way any of this is going to change for
the better,is to get these damn liberal do good
er,bleeding heart politicians out of office,i’d
go a step farther and run them out of the count
ry and not allow them back,untill that happens
you can continue to expect more of the same.I w
ould advise everyone that does give a damn to g
et behind the tea party and support the candida
tes,forget about the occupy wall street movemen
t,anyone with half a brain knows those idiots are just trying to relive the 60s,which is when
our country started going down hill,and hasnt stopped since.
This has nothing to do with safety, it’s all about the dollar.Anything they come up with is to keep the money flowing.
Amen over and over. I read all of the comments here and agree completely with what everyone has said. We all have had similar experiences out here and for the most part I do believe in the hard work that the majority of the men and women drivers put forth. We work long hours and are compensated at a rate unequal to or even close to what we are worth and the effort we put forth. The question I have is this…Why are we regulated by the hour and paid by the mile? Seems like a double standard that invites cheating. This process encourages drivers to cheat the system in order to make more money. I agree that we should be well rested in order to be focused enough to perform our jobs safely, there is no question about that. However, someone help me with this. If the companies were regulated to pay us all by the hour and they were regulated to pay us for no more than 14 hours a day would any of you give them more hours for free? I dont think so. My suggestion would be to pay us the drivers a fair hourly wage, overtime included and limit us to 14 hours work time in a 24 hour period with a mandatory 10 hour minimum rest period. Do not limit us to 11 hours driving. I know I can begin my work day at 6am and drive safely until 8pm if the haul is long enough to keep moving that long. This would accomplish several things. The trucking companies could get more miles out of each truck per day on the long haul system reducing the number of trucks needed to accomplish the same job therefore reducing the opportunity for accident. The fmcsa would be assured that the driver would not be cheating his log book to gain more miles for additional pay. I know I for one wont give them extra hours if I am only getting paid for 14. This would also make arranging relay points easier for the logistics end of the industry. Again, why pay us by the mile and regulate us by the hour. I believe I know the answer and it scares me to death. I dont want too believe that this country I love so much is more focused on creating a penalty based logistics systen that encourages illegal activity by the driver in order to reap the financial benefits from fines but that is the only reasonable deduction in this case. Sad but true. If they truly care about our safety and the safety of the motoring public they will start from scratch and fix it right. Sigh…..
AS FOR THE 34 HR RESTART,IF YOU RESTART MORE THAN ONCE IN A WEEK,YOU ARE LOSING MONEY.SEEMS ONCE IN A 2 WEEK TIME FRAME SEEMS TO BE ABOUT RIGHT.
Lets write in Ron Pual for PRESIDENT because he will get rid alot of FEDERAL GOVERMNENT B.S.DEPARTMENTS SUCH AS EPA,ENERGY,HUD,AND THE IRS,AND BUNCH MORE.Give OBAMA a big fat PINK SLIP back to CHICAGO where he belongs to the HOODRATS!Who’s with me?Everyone is paying way TOO MUCH for FUEL PRICES in this country and theres been no discussion in the press or in the PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES!THESE HIGH FUEL PRICES are hurting EVERY ONE in this COUNTRY!