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Jul 25, 2015

INEFFICIENCIES * USA: Under HOS, shippers lose more than 44,000 miles yearly

* Arkansas - Trucking Report: Shipping customers losing driver time to inefficiencies

-- As shippers feel the crunch of a truck driver shortage, a report from one of the largest U.S. freight companies says buyers of transportation service could greatly increase capacity if they managed their time better... Titled “660 Minutes,” after the maximum time drivers can be behind the wheel each day under federal regulations, the report from J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. estimates that shippers lose more than 44,000 miles, or 63 loads, annually for each driver to excessive paperwork, long waits at distribution centers and other inefficiencies... Under the federal “hours-of-service” rules, drivers are permitted 11 hours on the road and a total of 14 hours of on duty time, with a required 30-minute break during the period. But the reality, the report says, is that drivers spend only 6.5 hours on the road after spending time on pickup, delivery, safety inspections and other tasks before running out of time—and that’s on their best days... The inefficiency leads to higher freight rates, which will either cut into the margins of retailers and other shipping customers or press them to raise the prices of their products... Several technology companies are competing to help companies get more efficient in how they deliver and receive shipments. That reduces the time needed for dispatchers to find out if specific drivers are waiting in their lots, and calling them to move forward in line... J.B. Hunt believes if shippers and receivers clean up their acts, allowing flexible appointment times and expediting loading and unloading times, each truck driver in the U.S. could travel 44,375 miles further than they do now...
(Photo: The J.B. Hunt report says each driver could carry an average of 63 more loads a year if operations got more efficient)  --  Lowell, Arkansas, U.S.A. - Bloomberg/The WSJ, by Loretta Cha - July 23, 2015

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Feb 6, 2015

HOS DEBATE * USA & Canada: Controversial truck driver rules put spotlight on safety

* Calgary - The died of a trucking passionate

(Photo: Remembering Ron Singer)
-- Devastating trucking accidents put trucking safety issues front and center recently. The number of hours truckers are allowed to drive in a day and per week is especially controversial. Tensions are high in the trucking community concerning the “hours of service” rule, which was re-instated in December, overturning 2013 regulations that required... Ron Singer, longtime industry advocate and owner of Ron Singer Truck Lines, died suddenly Dec. 22 while prepping his trailer for a load. Ron built a successful business in Calgary, Alta. managing a fleet of gravel trucks that served destinations across Western Canada. However, he was a proud trucker first and foremost and was always ready and willing to put in a full day behind the wheel...Singer was as passionate about trucking as they come. He was involved in many industry associations over his career, including the Alberta Trucking Association and later the Alberta Motor Transport Association, the Alberta Construction Truckers Association, the Owner-Operators’ Business Association of Canada and the North American Truckers Guild... Alberta, Calgary, Canada -Full Time Whistle, by David Jackman -3 February 2015

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Jun 24, 2013

HOS Discussions * USA

* Georgia - Trucking industry opposes safety rules

Atlanta,GA,USA -PKP firm -21 Jun 2013: -- The trucking industry's main trade group, the American Trucking Association (ATA), opposes new driver hours of service (HOS) rules, which were published in December 2011 and would require specified rest periods for drivers after long hours of contnuous work. Starting July 1, 2013, the new HOS rules would cut the number of hours a driver can work from 82 to 70 per week, require drivers to take 34 consecutive hours off before restarting their work week, and take a 30 minute break before driving more than eight hours... Last month the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) denied a request by the ATA for a three month stay of the implementation of these rules, saying it was “…unwilling to sacrifice what may be several months of public safety benefits” ...  


* DC - Trucking industry wants to jam brakes on looming driver regulations

Washington,DC,USA -The Hill, by Ben Goad -16 June 2013: -- Trucking companies are about to get hit with a new set of regulations further limiting the time a driver can spend behind the wheel... The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rule, the subject of a years-long legal battle, will only exacerbate an existing national driver shortage and hit consumers in their pocketbooks, the industry charges... Safety groups, meanwhile, argue the regulations don’t go far enough to protect the nation’s roads from the consequences of driver fatigue... Beginning July 1, drivers will be able to drive 12 fewer hours per week and will be required to take regular 34-hour rest periods that include pre-dawn hours of two straight days, under the rule... Meanwhile, the House Transportation Subcommittee on Highways and Transit is set to convene a hearing on Tuesday to consider the potential impacts of the rule. Representatives from FMCSA, the American Trucking Association and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance are among those scheduled to testify...
* DC - Congress gets earful on HOS. Rule changes due to take effect just 7 days from now

(Photo: Barring a court decision, trucking will very soon be dealing with key changes to the hours-of-service rule) 
Washington,DC,USA -Fleet Owner, by David Cullen -Jun. 19, 2013: -- Testimony before a Congressional subcommittee yesterday on impending changes to the Hours of Service (HOS) rules for truck drivers cast some more light on the intentions of the revisions and the difficulty of roadside enforcement of the changes—as well as what may well shape further battles over the rule’s content... These changes to the rule are slated to go into effect just 12 days from now, barring a court decision on a pending legal challenge:

 -- Limiting of a driver's work week to 70 hours within a seven-day period. (Under the current rules, truck drivers can work on average up to 82 hours) 
-- Drivers will not be allowed to drive after working eight hours without first taking a break of at least 30 minutes. 
-- Drivers can take that 30-minute break whenever they need rest during the eight-hour window... 
-- Drivers who maximize their weekly work hours will have to take at least two “night-rest” periods from 1:00 am to 5:00 am. This requirement is part of the rule's "34-hour restart" provision that allows drivers to restart the clock on their work week by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off-duty... 
-- Drivers will only be able to use restart provision once during a seven-day period... 

 According to Joan Claybrook, consumer co-chair of the nonprofit Advocates for Highway and  Auto Safety and a former Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, testimony, further changes to the rule will be needed to more fully address driver fatigue... She made her case with these points: 

 -- Crash risk increases geometrically after the eighth (8th) consecutive hour of driving 
-- Under the current HOS rule, drivers are not getting sufficient sleep, obtaining, on average, less than six (6) hours of sleep on work nights 
-- Because humans have a biological diurnal schedule that normally requires nighttime sleep, attempts to sleep during daytime result in shorter and less restful sleep periods as compared to nighttime sleep 
-- Lack of sufficient sleep from day-to-day and week-to-week results in cumulative sleep deprivation, or sleep debt, that can only be overcome through extended periods of off-duty time for rest and recovery... 


* California - Tougher regulations affect trucking industry

Fresno,CAL,USA -KFSN-TV/DT/ABC 30 -June 20, 2013: -- Truckers in California are trying to deal with the effects of tougher regulations... Six months ago, California started requiring refrigerated trucks to have engines that date back no further than seven years. Truckers say with the new rules, there are a lot fewer vehicles working in California because many don't meet the standards... Another worry is a new federal rule that goes into effect next month. That increases the number of hours trucks must rest before hitting the road. They say being forced to sleep more, might cost them hours or even days on arrival...


* California - High Court throws out parts of L.A.’s Clean Truck Program 

Sacramento,CAL,USA -City News Service/EGP News, by Elizabeth Hsing-Huei Chou -June 20, 2013: -- The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down part of a program aimed at cutting pollution generated by trucks at the Los Angeles port... Port officials can still ban dirty trucks, forcing trucking companies to switch to cleaner vehicles, as part of their 2008 clean truck program, but according to the June 13 ruling, they cannot make the companies display “how am I doing?” placards in their trucks and to provide a list of places they park vehicles that are not in service... The justices ruled that federal law pre-empts the port from enforcing those two requirements, part of a host of “concession agreements” under the 2008 program... Marine terminal operators face misdemeanor charges and could be fined up to $500 or sentenced to six months in prison if they let in trucks from companies that fail to comply with those agreements. Truck companies could also lose their license to operate at the port if they do not take “corrective action” ... The two requirements the Supreme Court overturned were part of five concession agreements originally challenged by the truck association. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had agreed with ATA that trucking companies should be able to hire truck drivers as independent contracts rather than as employees, but struck down challenges to two other requirements that the companies show their financial ability to comply with the clean truck program and submit clean truck maintenance plans. The port decided not to pursue keeping the driver employment requirement, which environmental and labor groups had argued was necessary because drivers operating as independent contractors were not paid enough by trucking companies to upgrade and maintain their vehicles on their own...

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Nov 4, 2011

HOS * USA - Final rule nearing completion

The hours-of-service final rule is heading into the final stretch – for now anyway

Washington,DC,USA -Land Line, by Jami Jones -2 Nov 2011: --  Yesterday, Nov. 1, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration submitted the final hours-of-service regulation to the Office of Management and Budget. Generally these reviews can take between 30 and 90 days, but there is no set deadline... Initially, FMCSA anticipated the rule being at OMB for approximately two months. However, the agency has not updated its report on pending rulemakings with the altered schedule...  The groups involved in the lawsuit – Public Citizen, Teamsters, Advocates for Highway Safety and Truck Safety Coalition – and the FMCSA have until Nov. 28 to file motions to govern further proceedings...  This isn’t the first time hours of service has been involved in litigation forcing a redraft...

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Oct 26, 2011

HOS DEBATE * USA & Europe

* USA / DC - LaHood asked Senator Ayotte left alone HOS changes

 -Fleet Owner, by Deborah Whistler -Oct 25, 2011: -- Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, has asked Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) to withdraw her amendment to the 2012 Transportation Appropriations Bill that would block the Obama Administration from implementing its proposed changes for hours-of-service rules for commercial truck drivers...  FMCSA's proposed changes would reduce a driver's maximum daily driving time from 11 hours to 10 hours and reduce the on-duty "work day" from 14 hours to 13 hours... The proposed rule change also would impose new restrictions on the minimum 34-hour “restart,” which allows drivers to work more weekly hours if they take 34 consecutive hours off, “making use of the minimum period impossible,” the Senator said.  “The changes also fail to account for delays in picking up cargo, known as detention time," according to Ayotte... 


* Europe - Truckers deal with strict HOS regs

(Photo: A big trucks' deposit for a bigger trucking co.)
Gothenburg,Sweden -Fleet Owner -Oct 27, 2011: -- While potential changes, or non-changes, to U.S. driver hours-of-service regulations are likely to be met with frustration and possibly lawsuits, European truck drivers work under very strict European Union (EU) hours-of-service (HOS) rules that go several steps further than anything in the U.S...  Under current European law, any driver operating a 12 ton or higher vehicle is subject to the laws, which limit driving to 9 hours per day, 56 in a week, and 90 over a two-week period. Twice a week, driving time can be extended to 10 hours...  In addition, there are mandatory 45-minute break periods for each 4.5 hours of driving, and a new 4.5-hour period does not begin until a full 45 minutes of rest time has been accomplished...  The law does allow, however, for that break period to be split up in increments, providing that the first break is 15 minutes and the second break period 30 minutes. Breaks of less than 15 minutes do not count...  There is also a daily 11-hour rest period mandated, and that too is particularly strict...  For truckers and fleet managers alike in Sweden, though, the hour restrictions are really just a fact of life... 

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Oct 1, 2011

HOS DEBATE * USA - Shippers Urge Congress to Block Driver Rule Change

Cutting trucker hours could increase shipping costs 10 percent, NASSTRAC says

(Photo)
Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce, by William B. Cassidy -Sep 30, 2011: -- The battle over proposed changes to truck driver hours of service escalated on Capitol Hill this week as a group of shipping executives called on key members of Congress to oppose shortening the time truckers may drive each day...  Nearly 20 executives from businesses that rely on trucking services visited House and Senate Republicans and Democrats Sept. 27 and 28 to argue against changes to the work hour rules they said could raise their costs as much as 10 percent...  The shippers, members of NASSTRAC, visited Capitol Hill shortly after Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., and his subcommittee chairs asked President Obama to drop the proposed changes...  The FMCSA is scheduled to release its final hours of service rule in October...

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May 19, 2011

Hours of Disservice * USA - ATA board votes to oppose regulating detention time

Grain Valley,MO,USA -Land Line Magazine, by David Tanner -May 20, 2011: -- The House bill HR756, calls on the U.S. Department of Transportation to quantify detention time, issue regulations to set the maximum number of hours a driver can be detained without compensation, and impose penalties against shippers and receivers that don’t pay for unreasonable detention time... According to a Government Accountability Office report that coincided with DeFazio’s bill in February, 65 percent of drivers reported losing revenue because of wasted time at the docks and 80 percent of drivers reported that detention time hindered them from meeting hours-of-service requirements... FMCSA Administrator, Anne Ferro, is on record saying the issue must be addressed. FMCSA’s own study showed detention time costs truckers $3.9 billion and costs the public $6.5 billion in lost productivity... An OOIDA study showed drivers can lose as much as 40 hours a week waiting to be loaded or unloaded... While the ATA’s position on detention time is infuriating, it’s also typical, OOIDA President, Jim Johnston, said... “I really can’t find the words to express my disgust and anger over this,” and added, “But when you think about it, and the things that these people have done in the past that are similar, like supporting speed limiters on trucks, electronic on-board recorders, increased truck size and weight limits, increased roadside enforcement, it’s not surprising..."


* ATA's Dan England: “No carrier wants to see our drivers’ time wasted”   

Arlington,VA,USA -Transport Topics -18 May 2011: -- Last month, a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration advisory committee recommended that FMCSA seek authority from Congress to impose penalties against shippers, receivers and brokers who “unduly detain” commercial vehicle drivers... American Trucking Associations said its board of directors voted to oppose efforts at regulating detention times — the time drivers and trucks wait to load or unload their cargo... The Government Accountability Office said in January that 59% of drivers reported delays of more than two hours at freight terminals, making it hard for them to comply with federal rules on driving time... (Photo from bigrigdriving: trucks waiting at warehouse)


* OPINION: Detention Self-Help.  "The last thing the trucking industry needs is for the federal government to decide just how long is “too long” when it comes to loading and unloading trailers"

Arlington,VA,USA -Transport Topics -23 May 2011: -- There’s no doubt that the failure of some shippers and consignees to promptly load or unload trailers is a serious issue for the trucking industry.  And because of this, most fleets have added detention rules into their contracts with their customers, detailing just how long it should take for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded...  When shippers fail to meet the rules, fleets are then able to charge their laggards for the time that is lost: both to help cover drivers’ wasted time and for tying up the equipment...  So we understand the motivation behind the recent moves to put more pressure on fleet customers to not impede the flow of commerce by detaining drivers and equipment...  But we also strongly believe that this is not an area that needs a new round of federal regulations and oversight to solve, because the so-called “solution” could turn out to be a lot worse than the problem...  But we have to strongly object to the solution he proposes: the creation of national standards by the Department of Transportation and the imposition of fixed penalties for violations...  This is surely a situation where the involved carrier has to determine acceptable detention times — and the penalties to be assessed when customers violate them...

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Feb 23, 2011

New Driver Rules * USA - Trucking Recovery Faces Roadblock From

The sector could stall out from forced cuts to drivers' on-road time

(Video from YouTube, by aaronnflanders -30 Jan 2011: Hit a little snow storm on the way to RI. It was 18+ inches by the time I got back to CT)
Lancaster,PA,USA -Investor Place, by Susan J. Aluise -Feb. 18, 2011: -- Just as the trucking industry labors to drive away from a deep recession and defray runaway diesel fuel prices, there’s another potential roadblock to recovery: the possibility of new federal rules on how and when drivers work and sleep... While the extra margin of safety proposed is a noble goal, there are significant costs in time and money that likely will eat into the margins of trucking companies as they ease back onto the road to profitability... The Department of Transportation’s “Hours of Service” rules were put in place decades ago to curb accidents caused by driver fatigue. By limiting the number of daily driving hours, requiring minimum daily rest periods and keeping drivers on a 21-24-hour schedule, the rules aim to reduce cumulative fatigue by maintaining the natural sleep/wake cycle, or “circadian rhythm”... The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) wants to cut a driver’s maximum daily driving time to 10 hours from 11 hours and reduce the on-duty “workday” to 13 hours from 14 hours. Regulators also want to eliminate the so-called “34-hour restart,” which allows drivers to work more weekly hours if they take 34 consecutive hours off. Comments on the plan — and there are more than 7,600 so far — are due to FMCSA by March 4...   If FMCSA passes the rule as is, additional costs and delayed shipments could put the brakes on the fragile recovery and inhibit the rebound in share prices...

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Jan 18, 2011

HOS RULES * USA - Time is wasted with Hours-of-Service rules

Analysis: "The rule requires time – something that is in short supply in an industry trying to meet deadlines"

New York,NY,USA -Fleet Owner, by Brian Straight -December 29, 2010: ... The problems with the new Hours-of-Service regulations proposed by the Dept. of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: “It’s one of those things where we try to balance highway safety against driver health against driver income against driver happiness (miles and home time),” Jay Thompson at the Gerson Lehrman Group, wrote. “As one who follows and tries to make sense out of numbers, improving safety numbers from where we are now is extremely difficult. The other main ingredient in truck safety is the drivers’ attitude, which these rules have us potentially going in the wrong direction” ... Thompson has a number of issues, but it all comes down to time. While DOT didn’t make the changes many expected - specifically a set 48-hour restart period – it came close to doing that under the guise of the 34-hour restart by mandating two consecutive rest periods between midnight and 6 a.m... Based on my math, that means the only way you can have a 34-hour restart would be if a driver could manipulate their hours to end work exactly at 8 p.m. Anything before that simply extends the restart window to many more hours up to 48... The added time to a driver’s week has another impact, Thompson concludes... “If truckers lose a half hour a day in driving time, that’ll be at least a hundred miles per week - or a penny & a half per mile lost by the truck owner and a 4% pay cut for drivers. For profitable fleets like Swift Transportation, Schneider National, US Xpress Enterprises, Werner Enterprises, Estes Express and others, it can be a minimum 10% addition to the [operating revenue]. For others like YRC Worldwide and Arkansas Best Corp, it’s all of their buffer..." Thompson hints that fleets may look for ways around this, including speeding trucks up to get more miles covered in a given shift. That, he says, will result in more fuel usage and increased potential for accidents...  (Photo from fleetowner: driver thumbnail)

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Mar 30, 2010

HOS * USA - ATA speakers encourage FMCSA to make HOS rules flexible

Louisville,KY,USA -The Trucker News Services -MAT- 27 March 2010: -- Representatives of affiliates and member companies of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) told the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) here Friday that the latest safety figures help to show the effectiveness of the current Hours of Service (HOS) rules. These representatives also told FMCSA that the rules can be improved with flexibility in the sleeper berth provision... This was the last of five scheduled around the country as the FMCSA again considers HOS changes requested by special interest groups. Usher said that the trucking industry has seen a large decline in the truck-involved fatality rate since the current HOS rules took effect. The continually improving safety figures illustrate the real-world benefits of the current rules, which are based on a decade of extensive research and analysis... (Photo - America’s Road Team Captain Steve Fields, a professional truck driver who has driven more than 2.5 million crash-free miles, commenting on HOS Friday at MATS)

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Jan 7, 2010

Hours Of Service * USA - Calling all truckers on

The federal government is ready to listen to you as it develops a new rulemaking on HOS

Washington,DC,USA -Land Line Magazine, by David Tanner -January 6, 2010: -- Do you have concerns about hours of service? Perhaps you’ve been held up at the docks too many times or have been forced to take a mandatory break just a few miles from your destination... The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will open up the discussion to the public during a series of listening sessions this month in Washington, DC, Texas and California and will accept comments online, by mail and by fax as part of the rulemaking... OOIDA is gearing up for a strong presence and participation in the process, having laid the groundwork with official comments through the years on just about every aspect of HOS...

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Dec 10, 2009

HOS * USA - Trucking industry digs in for new battle

Arlington,VA,USA -The National Industrial Transportation League/Logistics Management -9 Dec 2009: -- The American Trucking Associations (ATA) posted a web site notice affirming its support for current trucking hours of service (HOS) rules, and stating its intent to maintain them, even as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) starts over on the development of a new set of standards... The ATA asserted the trucking industry is now the safest it has been since the Transportation Department began keeping crash statistics in 1975. It said the number of truck-involved fatalities on U.S. highways has decreased by 19 percent since the new HOS rules took effect and the number of injuries has decreased by 13 percent since 2004. The safety improvements came at a time when the number of registered large trucks operating on highways increased by hundreds of thousands and the number of miles driven by large trucks increased by more than two billion miles... (Picture from corbisimages)

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Nov 19, 2009

Hours Of Service * USA - Trucker’s Dream? Obama Reconsiders 11th-Hour Bush Decision

Chicago,IL,USA -In These Times, by Stephen Franklin -November 18, 2009: ... Urged on by the trucking industry, the Bush administration twice before tried to boost drivers’ hours and loosen the regulations controlling them. The trucking industry had rolled out a heap of explanations why longer hours for drivers was good for business, good for the economy and just plain good for the country... And both times federal courts knocked down the government’s efforts... Even the government’s own Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA), part of the labor department, opposed the rule changes proposed by the Bush administration, saying it would put more tired truckers on the road... But in October 2008, the Republican White House went ahead with a rule not very different from the others that the courts overturned... That was the situation until the current administration worked out a deal last month (October 2009) with the Teamsters Union, Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway Safety and the Truck Safety Coalition. Because the government agreed to reconsider the rule, those organizations dropped their lawsuit against it... Meanwhile the 11-hour rule governs the road... Nor does the 11-hour rule matter to the truckers who see how much more money they can make by pushing their freight hours beyond what they are allowed... Drivers who cook their books don’t worry because they know there are numerous ways not to get caught. And they also know that the government hasn’t been trying very hard to catch so them... But it’s also a matter of concern to truckers who know they are driving themselves to death... Several years ago, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association came up with startling figures. By its calculations, its average member was dropping dead at 55 and its members were running a higher than average suicide rate... (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images - A truck stands idle on the Interstate 15 freeway northwest of San Bernardino, Calif)

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Nov 4, 2009

HOS revamp * USA - Magazine reports a ‘deal’ to quell concerns over Ferro's confirmation

Washington,DC,USA -The Trucker -2 Nov 2009: — DC VELOCITY has reported that the agreement by the Department of Transportation to rewrite the Hours of Service rule within 21 months was a deal pushed by the White House to “quell concerns” by the Teamsters, safety advocacy groups and others “over the controversial nomination of Anne Ferro” to become the next administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration... The trucking executive cited in the magazine article noted that the full committee announced it had approved Ferro's nomination the day after news that FMCSA would revisit HOS was made public... Her confirmation by the full Senate seems assured, said the executive, who asked not to be named. He added that the trucking industry was not party to the agreement and was "totally surprised" by the announcement that HOS would be revisited... Teamsters spokeswoman Leigh Strope called any talk of a backroom deal to allay union concerns over Ferro's nomination a "ridiculous assertion," according to the article...


* USA - Abandoning the HOS Solution

Arlington,VA,USA -Transport Topics -2 Nov 2009: -- For the past three years under federal hours-of-service regulations, fatal crashes involving heavy trucks have declined, last year reaching the lowest level since the U.S. Department of Transportation began keeping the records... Yet, last week we learned that DOT has decided to abandon the current rules and restudy the complicated issues of driver work-and-rest cycles for another nine months, before submitting a new proposal to the White House... That will begin a process that the agency said will take another 21 months to complete... Let’s hope that DOT’s next new HOS rules don’t reduce safety on our nation’s roads or make it impossible for the trucking industry to efficiently deliver the goods... Meanwhile, trucking will continue to live by the rules DOT has set down, even if DOT doesn’t...

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Aug 18, 2009

ESA vs. HOS * Canada - The battle continues

Double Standard: Private carriers are still subject to stricter provincial labor codes

Toronto,ONT,CAN -Today's Trucking -17 Aug 2009: -- Not only are there significant inconsistencies in the way various provincial transport departments apply federal hours-of-service rules, but the driving time regime remains at odds with provincial labor legislation as well, trapping most private fleets behind the eight ball... Today's Trucking first reported the discrepancy between Transport Canada's HOS regime and (to use just one example) Ontario's Employment Standards Act (ESA) in 2007, but very little has been done to close the gap since then, says Chris Andree of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP... Private carriers in Ontario especially, since most are provincially regulated, are subject to the Employment Standards Act (ESA), which limits working hours to 44 a week before overtime pay and requires a permit for over 48 hours -- rather than the HOS rules, which allow up to 70 hours per week and 14 on-duty hours a day. The same is true in most other provinces...


* Feds looking for carriers to study wait times

Ottawa,ONT,CAN -Today's Trucking -17 Aug 2009: -- Transport Canada is looking for motor carriers to participate in a project to measure queuing times at ports, wait times at border crossings and travel times between major cities and along major trade corridors... Transport Canada would use data provided by carriers to help it evaluate major infrastructure projects... The data that Transport Canada would like to collect includes, origin and destination, date and time of departure and arrival, total distance traveled per trip, truck wait times at terminal gates and border crossings and turn-around times at terminals and the border... (Photo from ops.fhwa.dot.gov: Canada trucka delay)

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Apr 6, 2009

HOS' DEBATE* USA - Behind the Wheel

Teamsters, safety groups challenge hours-of-service rules

Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce Magazine, by John Gallagher -Mar 16, 2009: -- After challenging Bush administration trucking hours-of-service rules several times, the Teamsters union and several safety advocacy groups are taking their fight to the more labor-friendly Obama administration... In a March 9 letter to Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, the Teamsters, Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, and the Truck Safety Coalition requested new regulations restricting the number of hours truck drivers can be on the road... The groups also asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington to review the latest rule, which took effect on Jan. 19 — the day before President Obama’s inauguration... The rate of fatalities involving large trucks and buses decreased between 2006 and 2007, though the number of fatalities increased by 72. The number of injuries involving large trucks also declined, while vehicle miles traveled increased... The American Trucking Associations, which has fought to keep the 11-hour driving rule as well as the 34-hour restart rule allowing drivers to begin their official workday after 34 hours’ rest, cites the FMCSA’s safety data in responding to the latest petition... The ATA plans to file a motion to intervene in the case... (Photo from flickr)

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Mar 24, 2009

HOS * USA - The Hours Of Service Rules: Myths And Facts

Arlington,VA,USA -American Trucking Associations/Logistic On Line -March 23, 2009: --

# 1 Myth: The 11-hour driving limit and 34-hour restart provisions will significantly increase truck crashes and fatalities.

- Facts: Since January of 2004 when the 11-hour driving limit and 34-hour restart went into effect, the large truck-involved fatal crashes fell from 4,335 (2003) to 4,190 (2007), while the number of truck miles traveled increased by 11B. The number of truck-involved fatalities has also decreased by more than 200 from 5,036 in 2003 to 4,808 in 2007. The truck-involved fatality rate (i.e., the number of fatalities divided by the miles traveled by trucks) has come down more than 10 percent and is at its lowest since the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) began keeping records in 1975...

# 2 Myth: The 34-hour restart provision disregards the safety and health implications of cumulative fatigue on drivers.

- Facts: FMCSA determined that the new hours of service rules through their combined effects would "not have a deleterious effect on the physical condition of the [truck] operators." Data from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics appear to support FMCSA's conclusion, showing that the rate of occupational injuries and illnesses in the trucking industry decreased by nearly 18 percent between 2004 and 2007... An American Transportation Research Institute study on the impact of the new hours of service rules also found that the 34-hour restart, 10 hours off, and 11 hours of driving time are drivers' most preferred features...

# 3 Myth: The 34-hour restart will generate very long driving and on-duty times.

- Facts: In the real world, this has not been the case. FMCSA found in their 2007 field study that only 27 percent of long-haul drivers were using any part of the maximum 11th driving hour. Only 8 percent of the restarts were exactly 34 hours, while 65 percent exceeded 44 hours...

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Feb 4, 2009

Advice: ‘get a room’ * USA - OOIDA members react to Virginia State Police’s one

Get a room – that’s the advice Corinne Geller, spokeswoman for VSP, recommended as a solution -- along with better trip planning, for truckers who must take their 10-hour mandatory break...

VA,USA -Land Line Magazine -February 3, 2009: -- Many truckers have weighed in on the Virginia State Police’s recent advice to “get a room” if they are out of hours and needing to take a break when passing through the state. “Get a clue” has been the overwhelming response from truckers to the VSP’s recommendation... Several drivers, including Lyman Lincoln of Huber Heights, OH, have been ticketed in Virginia for exceeding the state’s two-hour parking maximum at rest areas because they couldn’t find a spot elsewhere to pull off. Some truck stops only allow parking for up to four hours before they force drivers to move on... OOIDA member Matthew Maier of Richmond, VA, sent an e-mail to Geller outlining the struggles and challenges truckers face daily to comply with federal regulations and then try to juggle federal laws with state laws as well...

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posted by Unknown @ 8:33 PM  0 comments

Oct 30, 2008

Fatigue Regulations * Australia - NSW 'back to the table' on

Sydney,NSW,Australia -ABC -30 October 2008: -- The New South Wales Government will meet with trucking industry representatives over concerns with the new fatigue laws, according to the Opposition... Last week the Coalition moved a disallowance motion on the Road Transport (General) Amendment (Heavy Vehicle Driver Fatigue and Speeding Compliance) Regulation... Shadow Road Safety Minister Andrew Fraser says the disallowance motion has had "a successful result"... Shadow Roads Minister Duncan Gay says industry was not properly consulted in the drafting of the laws... Gay says a number of issues need to be addressed, including the lack of rest stops, confusion around the regulations and the demerit points associated with new work diaries...

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posted by Unknown @ 9:16 AM  0 comments

Oct 5, 2008

HOURS OF SERVICE DEBATE * Australia - Keep on trucking

Coffs Coast truck drivers claiming lack of proper rest facilities

Coffs Harbour,New South Wales,AUS -Coff's Coast Advocate, by KUE DAVIS -October 04, 2008: -- Coffs Coast truck drivers are up in arms about new heavy vehicle laws introduced this week, claiming lack of proper rest facilities could force many out of business... Where they park for the new rest stops is now a major cause for concern with the laws, which apply to heavy truck or truck and trailer combinations that exceed 12 tonnes, stipulating three fatigue management schemes: Standard hour option with a maximum 12 hours of driving in any 24-hour period with specific limits on work and rest; a basic option allowing flexibility within set minimum rest and maximum work hours (14 hours work in any 24-hour period; or an advanced option based on risk management, with operating and outer limits of 15 hours work in any 24-hour period are the options... But local owner-driver Mick McLennan says there's simply nowhere for drivers to stop and has questioned why there was no rest stop placed along the new Bonville Bypass... (Nowhere to rest . . . new highway upgrades, but no truck stops)

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posted by Unknown @ 5:27 AM  0 comments