User-agent: Mediapartners-Google* Disallow: Trucks World News: * USA - MORE HOS DISCUSSIONS: "To choose between making money and getting rest"
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Jul 6, 2013

* USA - MORE HOS DISCUSSIONS: "To choose between making money and getting rest"

* Virginia - Truckers Are Losing Sleep Over 70-Hour Work Limit

Winchester,VA,USA -The WSJ, by JOSH MITCHELL -July 2, 2013: -- A long battle between truck drivers and federal regulators is culminating in giving truckers something that many don't want: More sleep... The changes—the most significant overhaul of rules governing truck-driver hours in a decade—shorten the workweek, restrict how many nights truckers can be on the road and require rest breaks during the day... The Obama administration says the regulations will reduce crashes from sleep-deprived drivers getting behind the wheel. They would effectively cap a driver's average workweek at 70 hours, down from the previous maximum of 82... Trucking companies say the sweeping changes, which took effect this week, will cost them money—by requiring more trucks to carry the same number of loads—with little benefit... The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to enforce the rules by routinely checking drivers' work logs, in which they are required to report their schedules, and imposing fines up to $11,000 for companies and $2,750 for individual drivers for each offense... 
(Image by Zuma Press - A truck stop in Nevada)
The rules went into effect on Monday that limits the work week to 70 hours from 82, requires a 34-hour “re-start” period after working 70 hours that must include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. time periods, and mandates drivers take a 30-minute break during the first eight hours of a shift... "It's just making it harder for the small businessman out here to compete with the big boys," said Robert Simonds, a 54-year-old from Martinsville, Va., who has driven a truck for two decades, "It's people that are making decisions behind a desk that have never been behind a wheel" ... Big truck companies that can shift around workers easily will be able to adjust better than independent owner-operators like him. But he acknowledged he doesn't know the precise effect the new rules will have on his business... Explanation from FMCSA Administrator, Anne Ferro, and quotes from two drivers, one who seems to agree with the agency that truck drivers need regulating and one that seems indifferent to the rule but who does allude to an argument that the rules may make drivers have to choose between making money and getting rest...

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