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HOS DEBATE * USA - Regulations
*The HOS fracas
USA -Fleet Owner, by Skil Carr -October 4, 2007: -- So, here we are, staring at a three month window within which the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) must come up with rules to replace the soon-to-be-extinct 11-hour daily driving limit and 34-hour retart provision of current hours of service (HOS) regulations. Hopefully, the new rules won’t make an appearance at the 11th hour on the 11th day (Dec. 27) when those provisions expire as ruled by the U.S. Courth of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Then again, the way things have been going in trucking lately, anything is possible... Here’s what I think: let’s get radical. Let’s go ahead an lobby for an eight hour drive-time limit, with a 10-hour on-duty period. Make it part of the regulations that drivers CANNOT load and unload their trailers, period.. . As long as the industry keeps improving its safety profile, makes a decent profit and drivers make a living, that’s what matters...
* What People Are Saying About Trucker Hours of Service
USA -Trucker to Trucker -5 Oct 2007: -- We're talking about the new hours of service (HOS) rules this week. The federal court struck down new FMCSA regulations that would allow an 11-hour driving day followed by 10 hours of rest with a 34-hour reset. The court justices don't think that's safe enough. They want to go back to 10 hours of drive time followed by an 8-hour rest. The FMCSA has 3 months to change their minds. You're doing the driving... What do you think? Here's what other people are saying about your job and how you do it:
* ATA President Bill Graves: "The ATA believes the existing rules have proven to be a significant improvement over the old rules in terms of reducing driver fatigue and related incidents. Motor carrier experience and FMCSA data dramatically illustrate this. The ATA plans to provide additional real-world documentation of the effectiveness of the current rules."
* OOIDA director of regulatory affairs Rick Craig: "We are obviously not too happy about the decision. We will be working with FMCSA for a speedy resolution now and petitioning the agency in the future for practical rules that reflect the real world for most truckers."
* FMCSA administrator Annette Sandberg: "We have a very aggressive goal at the Department of Transportation to reduce fatalities on our nation's highways, so safety is the top issue in our rule-making process. We developed the new hours-of-service rule with the priority in mind of reducing fatigue-related truck crashes, most notably in the long-haul sector where truck driver fatigue is 18 times greater than that of the short-haul sector. It is important to note that the research supporting the new rule estimates that only 5.5% of all large truck crashes are fatigue-related."
* Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety president Judith Stone: "In today's ruling, the court has once again sided with public safety and rejected FMCSA's illogical proposition that driving longer hours and working longer days will somehow solve truck driver fatigue."
* Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety VP Jackie Gillan: "In the last 10 years, 56,935 people have died and a million more were injured in truck crashes in communities across the country. American families are paying a steep personal and financial price for this public health disaster. ... It's time to stop coddling the trucking industry and make the safety of all motorists, including truck drivers, a priority."
* Judge David Sentell: "The agency [FMCSA] admits that studies show that crash risk increases, in the agency's words, 'geometrically' after the eighth hour on duty." He also chastized the agency for "ignoring its own evidence that fatigue causes many truck accidents" in a December 2006 rulling on the proposed HOS rules.
* Public Citizen president Joan Claybrook: "Large trucks are rolling time bombs on our highways, with tired truckers allowed to work 14 and 16 hours a day under the new DOT rules, making truck driving the most dangerous occupation in America."
* PATT (Parents Against Tired Truckers) founder Daphne Izer: "The trucking profession has become 'sweatshops on wheels' because of the excessive and unsafe hours of work and driving time requuired of truck drivers."
* Steve Edwards whose mother was killed in a truck crash blamed on driver fatigue: "These drivers are working hard every day on the road to make a liveing. They are overtired and underpaid." He thinks the feds need to tighten HOS rules.
* Trucker from Virginia who was pushed to drive more hours and doctor his logbooks: "I never felt safe driving under those conditions. I talked to many drivers on the fuel islands, truck stops and rest areas. Logbooks are so fake; it sacares me that there aren't more accidents on the road."
* Truck driver from Atlanta: "They [truckers] want to keep it the way they make money. The bottom line is the freight needs ot be moved."
* Trucker from Ohio: "Nurses do 12-on 12-off shifts and they're dealing with human lives every day, but we're the bad guys?"
Labels: HOS debate
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