New trucking hours of service rules released

   The U.S. Transportation Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) released its final “hours of service” rule for truckers on Thursday, reducing from 82 to 70 hours the maximum number of hours a truck driver can work within a seven-day period.
   The final rule, however, retains the current 11-hour daily driving limit.
   A year ago, in its notice of proposed rulemaking, FMCSA proposed changing the current 11-hour limit to an 10-hour limit.
   “In the absence of compelling scientific evidence demonstrating the safety benefits of a 10-hour driving limit, as opposed to an 11-hour limit, and confronted with strong evidence that an 11-hour limit could well provide higher net benefits, the agency has concluded that adequate and reasonable grounds under the administrative procedure act for adopting a new regulation on this issue do not exist and that the current driving limit should therefore be allowed to stand for now,” FMSCA said.
   But the agency said it will continue to conduct data analysis and research to further examine any risks associated with the 11 hours of driving time.
   The National Industrial Transportation League, the nation’s largest shipper organization said it was still studying the new rule, but said it appeared to be less aggressive to the notice of proposed rulemaking issued by the agency a year ago.
   In addition to retaining the 11-hour daily driving limit, the rule requires at least a 30 minute break after eight consecutive hours on duty compared to seven hours in the original  proposal. Also the maximum driving window will continue to be 14 consecutive hours after coming on-duty, compared to a maximum 13 hours of on-duty time in the original proposal.
   Dan E. England, chairman of the American Trucking Associations and head of Salt Lake City-based trucking company C.R. England, said “at first blush my reaction is that it’s not at all surprising that they’re making changes that will reduce the amount that drivers can drive.
   “I think we knew from the beginning that there was going to be a change and the disappointing thing is this whole process has not been driven by data, it’s been driven by political motivations as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “Safety advocates and organized labor have had a strong influence on this administration and so there’s been a strong sentiment from those groups to bring about a change for the benefits of their constituencies and whether there was a reason for it or not in the data, and there wasn’t, some change is going to happen.”
   Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa issued a statement saying “we said all along that an hours of service rule has to protect highway safety and our truck drivers’ health. We are reviewing the new rule, and in the coming weeks we will meet and discuss it with our allies and, if necessary, determine our next course of action.”
   “Keeping the 11 hour rule carries lethal consequences because studies sponsored by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)… reveals that under the existing HOS rule two-thirds of truck drivers (65 percent) acknowledge that they drive while tired, and nearly half (48 percent) admit to falling asleep behind the wheel in the previous year,” said the group Advocates for Highway. It said the FMCSA has estimated 500 people each year die in truck crashes in which driver fatigue is a factor, although other studies indicate that the real number of fatigue-related truck deaths may be higher.
   The Truck Safety Coalition (TSC) was critical saying “the rule retained one of the most unsafe provisions of the former rule, the 11-hour work day limit for truck drivers.”
   “DOT just revealed that truck crash fatalities increased in 2010 by 8.7%, with 3,675 people being killed. We know that fatigued driving is a major cause of truck crash fatalities,” said John Lannen, TSC’s executive director. “We continue to be baffled by the contrast in approaches for trucking and airline industries. (On Wednesday) DOT announced a sweeping reform of pilot scheduling to ensure pilots have a longer opportunity for rest, including limits of 8 or 9 hours flight time. Last year there were 2 commercial airline fatalities, yet improvements to aviation hours of service were made a priority based on fatigue-related studies.”
   England said it was “a mistake for people to compare a truck driver’s work hours to, say, someone who works an 8-to-5 job. First of all someone who works an 8-to-5 job, they have commute time involved, they don’t have at any given time right behind them a bed where they can sleep and get the rest they need.”
   Despite the rise in truck accidents last year, England said since 2004 when current hours of service were implemented, there has been a 30 percent drop in the number of fatalities that have involved large trucks
   England said the ATA will have to spend some time evaluating the rule before deciding whether or not to challenge it in court.
   “We have a strong interest in improving safety, as FMCSA does,” he said. “We just don’t’ think they are going about it in the right way and in a lot of ways they have been very collaborative with us. But for some reason in spite of all this data they’ve generated showing that the industry is improving, for some reason in this case they have kind of gone against their history of being data-driven and all of a sudden we get these kind of changes.”
   Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which represents small-business and professional truckers, said “collectively, the changes in this rule will have a dramatic effect on the lives and livelihoods of small-business truckers. The changes are unnecessary and unwelcome and will result in no significant safety gains.
   “Despite the fact that trucking has never been safer, federal regulators and big businesses continue to push for mandates that hurt small-business truckers,” Spencer said. “According to the latest data, fatigue is a factor in only 1.4 percent of all fatal wrecks involving truckers.”
   OOIDA said it has long held that to meaningfully improve highway safety, proposed changes would need to include all aspects of a truckers’ workday that affect their ability to drive safely. This includes loading and unloading times, split sleeper berth for team operations, and the ability to interrupt the 14-hour day for needed rest periods.
   Kelly Kolb, vice president for government relations at the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), said that “rather than encouraging greater efficiency, the new hours-of-service regulations will increase transportation costs, congestion and pollution by funneling more trucks onto the road at peak driving times.”
   She pointed to a DOT study that says traffic congestion already costs the U.S. economy $87.2 billion each year, with 4.2 billion hours and 2.8 billion gallons of fuel spent sitting in traffic.
   RILA said since 2003, the industry has relied on the existing hours-of-service regulations to optimize just-in-time supply chains required in today’s growing global economy. The ability to transport products to stores and distribution centers in a timely manner is essential to the continued health of the retail sector.
   “Supply chain optimization is the bread and butter of America’s most successful retailers. Their ability to move goods efficiently has changed the retail landscape and benefited consumers by reducing prices and increasing product assortments. The new hours of service rule will upend the advances in efficiency made over the past decade,” Kolb said.
   The rule requires truck drivers who maximize their weekly work hours to take at least two nights’ rest when their 24-hour body clock demands sleep the most – from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. This rest 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. The final rule allows drivers to use the restart provision only once during a seven-day period.
   The National Retail Federation said it welcomed the decision to allow truck drivers to continue driving 11 hours a day, but expressed concern over a new requirement for longer weekly breaks.
   “We’re pleased that regulators have seen the wisdom of keeping the current 11-hour limit, but longer overnight breaks create the potential for more big trucks to be mixing with passenger cars during congested daylight hours,” said David French, NRF senior vice president for government relations. “These new regulations will still drive up costs for businesses and consumers while making our highways and city streets more dangerous rather than safer. This is a case where something that might sound good on paper doesn’t work in the real world.”
   He noted the rules require that the 34 hours of time off currently between each week of driving now includes a requirement that the 34 hour period include at least two 1 a.m.-5 a.m. periods of nighttime rest.
   While supporters of the shorter daily limit and new weekly “restart” requirement have argued that they would result in fewer fatigued drivers on the road and help reduce accidents, French said the 11-hour daily limit and existing weekly provision have improved highway safety since they took effect in 2004. Retailers also regularly use overnight deliveries in order to avoid delays and greater safety risks during daytime traffic.
   French said the NRF believes the new restart requirement will have a significant impact on retailers, especially those who rely on overnight or early morning deliveries.”
   “Though FMCSA preserved the 34-hour restart provision, these changes dramatically increase the disruptiveness of such rest periods by mandating that they take place between one o’clock and five o’clock in the morning,” said John Cutler, legal counsel for the National Shippers Strategic Transportation Council, an organization that represents shippers using all modes of transportation. “The effect is that down time due to restarts will increase significantly, and many drivers will start driving on Monday mornings, forcing thousands of trucks onto our roadways in rush hour and dramatically increasing traffic congestion.” – Chris Dupin