FMCSA proposes on-duty truck driver limits

FMCSA proposes on-duty truck driver limits    The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration put some coal in the stockings of motor carriers when two days before Christmas it issued a proposed rule that changes some of the hours-of-service rules governing how long drivers can stay on duty behind the wheel and their rest periods.
   For shippers the rule would mean increased costs for their trucking providers and reduced availability of qualified drivers.
   The new hours-of-service proposal would retain the '34-hour restart' provision allowing drivers to restart the clock on their weekly 60 or 70 hours by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off-duty. However, the restart period would have to include two consecutive off-duty periods from midnight to 6 a.m. Drivers would be allowed to use this restart only once during a seven-day period.
   Additionally the proposal would require commercial truck drivers to complete all driving within a 14-hour workday, and to complete all on-duty work-related activities within 13 hours to allow for at least a one-hour break. It also leaves open for comment whether drivers should be limited to 10 or 11 hours of daily driving time, although FMCSA currently favors a 10-hour limit.
   'A fatigued driver has no place behind the wheel of a large commercial truck,' Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. 'We are committed to an hours-of-service rule that will help create an environment where commercial truck drivers are rested, alert and focused on safety while on the job.'

LaHood

   Commercial truck drivers who violate this proposed rule would face civil penalties of up to $2,750 for each offense. Trucking companies that allow their drivers to violate the proposal's driving limits would face penalties of up to $11,000 for each offense.
   Other key provisions include the option of extending a driver's daily shift to 16 hours twice a week to accommodate for issues such as loading and unloading at terminals or ports, and allowing drivers to count some time spent parked in their trucks toward off-duty hours.
   The proposal is 'overly complex, chock full of unnecessary restrictions on professional truck drivers and, at its core, would substantially reduce trucking's productivity,' Bill Graves, president of the American Trucking Associations, said in a statement.

Graves

   The nation's largest trucking organization opined that the proposed rule would likely reduce maximum daily driving time to 10 hours, reduce the maximum daily working time window by an additional hour, and actually abolish the 34-hour restart as it exists.
   Graves noted the trucking industry has made great safety strides during the past seven years, with crash-related fatalities down 33 percent and fatality and injury rates at their lowest levels ever despite increasing volumes of trucks and motor vehicles on the road.
   When viewed against trucking's sterling safety record,' Graves said, 'it's plain that the Obama administration's willingness to break something that's not broken likely has everything to do with politics and little or nothing to do with highway safety or driver health.'
   The White House is using driver health rather than road safety as the justification for the new rules, the ATA said.
   The organization noted, 'FMCSA previously found that the 11th hour of driving time does not increase driver weekly hours; is used for flexibility purposes; does not increase driver-fatigue risks; and that eliminating it would promote more aggressive driving (to meet time constraints) and lead to placing tens of thousands of less experienced drivers on the road who would pose greater crash risks. With respect to the 34-hour restart, FMCSA has correctly found in the past that requiring two nights of sleep would disrupt drivers' circadian cycle and add to more daytime driving in congested periods, again increasing crashes. FMCSA's reversal on these crucial matters is hard to explain in other than political terms.'
   The proposed changes 'will be enormously expensive for trucking and the economy,' Graves said. FMCSA, he noted, estimated two years ago that reducing the daily drive time by 1 hour and significantly changing the restart provision would cost $2.2 billion.
   'This proposal includes even more restrictions than what FMCSA previously considered,' Graves added. 'As a result, we will be evaluating FMCSA's proposed costs and benefits very carefully.'
   This is the second time since 2003 FMCSA has had to revise its hours-of-service rules under court order.
   The notice of proposed rulemaking will be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday and be open for public comment for 60 days. ' Eric Kulisch