With the stroke of a pen, the controversial HOS restart rules have been suspended! As of December 16th, two of the June 2013 restart rules have been rolled back. This means that 34-hour restarts no longer require two consecutive rest periods between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., and that restart periods can take place more than just once every seven days.
The suspension is only temporary however. The legislation does not entirely repeal the restart provisions, it only temporarily suspends them until October of next year. It could run longer if the FMCSA doesn’t finish their study into the safety impacts of the changes by the October deadline.
The ruling was passed in an unconventional way – as part of the 2015 fiscal year government budget. The so-called Collins Amendment (named after its champion, Senator Susan Collins) was added as a “rider” to the omnibus bill which allowed the changes to be made without a separate hearing or vote. The practice is a fairly common way that lawmakers can get legislation passed quickly or under the radar, but this rider didn’t go unnoticed.
Already industry groups are voicing their support for the suspension and thanking those lawmakers who were involved in getting it passed. OOIDA, the ATA, the Truckload Carriers Association, and trucking associations in all 50 states all came out in favor of the suspension before the vote and are pleased with the outcome.
“We have known since the beginning that the federal government did not properly evaluate the potential impacts of the changes it made in July 2013,” said Bill Graves, CEO of the ATA in a statement. “Now, thanks to the hard work of Senator (Susan) Collins and many others, we have a common sense solution. Suspending these restrictions until all the proper research can be done is a reasonable step.”
Not everyone is so happy to see the changes however. Some safety advocacy groups, DOT officials, and politicians are crying foul.
Senator Richard Blumenthal told Politico that he promises to “make an effort” to get the suspension reversed saying; “All of the folks who have an interest in transportation safety are dismayed and disheartened by this rollback of common-sense safety rules, everyone from the Teamsters and the truck drivers to the safety advocates.”
Members of those safety advocacy groups are indeed making their anger known. Daphne Izer, founder of Parents Against Tired Truckers, blames Sen. Collins and lobbyist from the trucking industry for – as she sees it – putting the motoring public in greater danger.
“Of course she’s in with the trucking industry, she gets money from them,” Izer said in an interview with Bloomberg. “Our families are using the highways, and we didn’t have a say in this, and we should. It’s very frustrating. This is a major step backwards.”
Whether or not you agree with the suspension, it appears that lobbying may have had an effect on the outcome. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the trucking industry spent a whopping $7.48 million on lobbying efforts in 2014 (the ATA alone spent over $1.3 million).
A statement from the FMCSA confirms that they will be recognizing the suspension, effective immediately. This means that if you’re keeping a log book the old fashioned way, the June 2013 restart rules are a thing of the past. If you’re using electronic logs however, you should check in with your carrier and/or EOBR provider to make sure that the program has been updated properly before trying to make use of the rule suspension.
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Source: ttnews, overdrive, overdrive, fleetowner, fleetowner, bloomberg, gobytrucknews, ttnews, washingtonpost, fox59, truckinginfo, opensecrets
jerry counts says
The problem with these rules, along with the other ones that came in with them is that none of then, in my opinion, and the opinion of others i have spoken to that drive tractor trailers as well is, they do nothing to make driving on interstates safer, for truckers or the public. Actually, some of them make it MORE dangerous. If these people want to make things on the interstates safer, ask truckers. Really. We are the ones out here. We don’t want to have accidents either. The 8 hour 30 minute break rule only makes our shifts 30 minutes longer. The old 34 hour rule just took revenue away from us and our families. Ask truckers. We will tell you how to make things on our roads safer. Here is one from me. How about this. Make this easy. 12 drive time, 14 drive & on duty. Every day. Drivers must take a 34 reset to change from day shift to night shift. 84-96 drive and on duty. If you cannot drive 12 hours, you got no businesses driving a truck. It’s an hour more than what we are doing now, so we get that, but you will not have drivers up all day because they been on a day shift, and have to drive all night. Won’t happen. That 1 thing is one of the most dangerous things about truck driving right there. Driving nights without proper sleep. Give a guy 34 to acclimate to a new shift and if he or she can’t do that, they should be doing something else. If you got hot loads, team them. This way, truckers are happy, trucking companies are happy, and our roads are a lot safer. Easy peezey. The fact that a trucker can go to prison for driving 5 minutes over time is unfathomable. Doctors who work saving people lives work longer. Lawyers working passing laws, fighting for innocent peoples freedom or putting the guilty in prisons work longer. I can offer these examples for days. This is ridiculous. Really. Truckers are not the devil. We are not wreckless Burt Reynolds wanna bees. We are, mostly, hard working people that spend weeks and weeks away from the people we love to bring needed products to consumers all over the USA. For this, we work in constant concern from every angle. Concern about an accident that could cause us our job or our life. Concern about what foolish government employee will pass the next foolish law about something they know NOTHING about. Concern about the very companies we work for, and what they are out could do to our jobs, our money, our miles. Even concern for what our families are doing at home while we are gone. Kids, wives, husbands. All of it. We want to be safe, and want the roads safer, but more intelligent decisions can and should be made. Lastly, get the 4 wheelers and truckers who are on hand held phones and texting while driving OFF the road. Start there and that would make the roads a lot safer. Sorry for the rant at the end, but let’s get this right. Passing laws just to be passing laws, without knowing that you are doing something RIGHT, is wrong.
Sean says
TESTIFY!!! Well said sir. Blumenthal can point the finger at Susan Collins all he wants. He is guilty of the same thing. The Teamsters own him. Bought and paid for like the rest of him. The Teamsters want more rules so the drivers will be fed up and organize. Business as usual.
David says
I had an idea and I will run it by everyone. I am going to make a documentary of myself doing all of different jobs that a trucker does. The problem with truck driving these days is the non Professional Drivers do not think about what it takes for their fuel to get the the gas station or how the groceries get to the grocery store. Modern Marvels could cover the documentary. My point is though that people really dont think about the Professional men and women who Drive this country. I think we ought ta give em a reminder folks.
Gary says
You are right David, most people don’t seem to realize there is nothing..NOTHING… they have that isn’t brought to them either directly..or indirectly…by truck
Kacey says
These people like Izer have no idea what they are talking about and the researchers are clueless to what it’s like on the ground as a trucker. These laws do nothing to protect the motoring public. Why don’t you ask Izer if she can sleep on command because that’s what most of these rules do to drivers. Also, if a driver gets stuck on a load that is delayed and has to sit for 34 hours after just doing a 34, presumably the driver is getting some rest during that period and why shouldn’t the driver get to reset their hours. These rules are ridiculous in the extreme.
This is not a 9 to 5 job with regimented sleep schedules, it’s as chaotic as a job can get. When I take 34’s sometimes I sleep all day, and am up all night and sleep part of the day, and drive. I’m rested. Under those new rules that were just repealed, I did the same thing most of the time. Anybody that thinks regulating a truck driver like a 9 to 5 worker will work is living in a delusional mindset about the life of a trucker over the road. My point being, specific clock hours mean NOTHING to a driver, except in terms of getting the load picked up and delivered on time. Just like days of the week mean NOTHING to a driver.
Sometimes I wake up and 3 am after my 10 and driver, other times I wake up at 4 in the afternoon and drive after my ten. That’s the nature of the business and no regulations will change that fact. Just like delivery times, sometime 3am other times 4 in the afternoon, and I still have to manage these idiotic artificial legal clocks that I have to work within.
To other truckers, preaching to the choir, to the “special groups” that think that stupid laws will “protect their families”, wake up. Causes more harm than good. Makes drivers more unsafe. More importantly, makes life miserable for drivers on the road.
sudon't says
Maybe it should be, if not a 9 to 5 job, an eight-hour, forty-hour per week job? Why do we have to work more hours to get the same pay everyone else gets in a normal week? If you want to solve all the problems having to do with hours, start paying truckers by the hour, based on a forty-hour week, with overtime. Watch how fast dispatchers start caring about how many hours you work.
jerry counts says
I don’t know about you, but I make write a bit more money than the person that works 9-5. That is why I am out here driving the rig and taking the chances I take. For the $, not the lifestyle. Of they made trucking a 9-5 with 9-5 money, there wouldn’t be many truckers our here trucking. At least not many experienced ones. Jmo.
rubberducky68 says
Exactly. I have been at this going into my third year. Trucking is the most screwed up job you could ever have when it comes to pay. If you break down the actual hours you put in, truckers are not really making squat based on the hours we put in. I know this has been said over and over again so I am not saying anything most drivers don’t know already.
However, I do put the blame for all these crazy long hours on truckers. They will put up with the abuse just for a check and thing taking home $600 a week is good money. They have let shippers, receivers and dispatchers run all over them dictating crazy pick up times and delivery hours. If drivers would stand up to all this crap we put up with then maybe some real changes would come about.
Suspending that 34 hr restart rule did nothing for truckers. Yeah, you are excited. Why? Your home time has just been cut back to 34 hours instead of having a little bit more time at home. Now get your arse back in that truck. There will be some changes coming for me in the near future. I am getting out of this business. You guys can have it.
Jason says
So you thought you’d be taking in the dough after just your third year? And I suppose you’d expect $20/hr after your third year as a cashier at walmart too right? I wasn’t making sh!t when I was in my third year, but I’m currently on my 13th year and I make a considerable amount more than pretty much everyone I know. I got into this business back when it was fun. Now I just stick around for the money.
Stormy says
Daphne Izer..,. Explain to me using common sense how the 2 periods of 1-5 of sleep makes any sense. We are all out there on the highway together. I worry just as much about you as I do anybody else. Putting on makeup, talking on your cellphone, texting and looking for papers to write notes on. How often have you had a job that not only required you to sleep 10 hours a day, but also tells you what hours you have to sleep.
It is nonsense and you know it.
Robin says
totally agree- in fact, I would like to see how long these so-called experts even without a truck stay at their job if they ran on our schedule.
told to be at work one day at 5am, 3pm the next and 2am the day after and with all that you can have to rest between 1am-5am and if your late, you’ll miss a days work, plus your bed may not be available at 1am because everybody is racing to make that deadline. [how rational is that?]
add to that you get to “earn” a day off 1 day for every week that you work, but you can only use your days off twice a month. [maybe]
I know, to those in the industry I’m preaching to the choir. To those outside the industry, they don’t have a clue.
And finally, when you look at the numbers themselves about how many trucks are on the road and how many miles traveled, we have a pretty darn good safety record.
Robin says
Blumenthal is an idiot, but that’s common knowledge. But he’s not the only one we need to worry about… The national Highway safety administration (NHSTA) just recently hired Mark Rosekind who is a sleep scientist and fatigue expert to the mix. [Great! another expert who has never been in a truck!]
it is a fact that the NHTSA has lied and altered the facts in order to get their way all in the name of” safety” although none of these idiots have any idea what it’s like in the trucking industry and how it works.
but then again, it is easy to be an arm-chair quarterback from the confines of their 8-5 job with weekends off.
In my opinion, they keep going the way they’re going, we will make the roads extremely safe by our own actions known as leaving the industry altogether.
Kelvee Acosta says
Now its time to eliminate the stupid 30 mins break!
sudon't says
Yeah, I’ve never been able to understand that one. What kind of “rest” are you supposed to get in thirty minutes? Especially in a day-cab? All it does, aside from wasting my time, is interfere with my choosing when to stop and eat.
I’m hungry in the morning. I liked to get loaded, find a place to eat, (I used to take an hour, or so), then do my driving. Now, I just stop for twenty minutes, eat and run, because I know I’ll have to kill a half-hour later. On the plus side, I’ve gotten pretty good at the solitaire game on my iPod.
Matches says
In the past two weeks I have had two periods with over 72 hrs spent at home. I couldn’t use the restart because a week hadn’t lapsed since I had used it. What sense did that make? Once a week was nonsense. The one to five provision was nonsense. The 30 minute break is an absolute joke.
Jason says
You mean you weren’t MORE tired after taking a LONGER break?? Lmao. That rule was so freaking stupid wasn’t it? I know anytime I’ve had a 4 day weekend I’ve been way more refreshed to go back to work than if I’d only had the usual 2 days off.
J-dog says
Alright! Now if we can get the 30 min break in the crosshairs life will be good!
dana says
Next is the 14 hour rule how does it make you safe trying to get to a destination by 6pm being stuck there for 8 hrs to unload, you spend the time sleeping but yet now your 14 hours is up and you have to spend 10 in off duty and sleeper yet your wide awake? Now when you’re able to drive again it really time for sleep and now your leaving tired. Tell me it hasn’t happened to just about every truck driver out there.
Jason says
If you were there for 8 hrs, you could use the 8/2 split to get some hours back. Or just stay there another 2 and then you’ve got all 11/14 back.
jerry counts says
This right here is the most dangerous thing about trucking. Period. If these scatter brained people that know nothing about our industry want to change something, this is what needs to be changed first. Keep truckers on the same schedule or make them take a 34 before changing it. And under a 11 hour drive system, that does not work, so make the 11 a 12. There you are. Fixed, and the roads would be a little safer. Like 70%+ of one vehicle accidents are between 12-6am. Because of either fatigue are alcohol or drugs. In truckers cases, it’s fatigue. Fix this and trucking for truckers and the public is tons safer. Jmo.
Northstar says
The poor trucker. They will never learn. That they need to be paid for their time, just not the miles to make a living. Accepting the ..well it’s part of the job…Ok hows that put food in your mouth when your spending countless hours a years …sitting waiting ….and not getting paid….
sudon't says
I’m with you, brother. If we were paid by the hour, based on a forty-hour week, all these problems with hours would disappear pretty fast. But then, we’d be putting the people who sit around thinking up new rules out of a high-paying job.
Come to think of it, what about the trucking company owners? Wouldn’t their profits be reduced? Would they still be able to send their children to private school? Afford their boat payments? Pay the mortgage on a McMansion?
How about the customers? The Job Creators. If they had to pay more for freight, wouldn’t they have to raise their prices so that their profits remained unaffected? Stockholders expect constant growth. Simply being profitable isn’t enough these days. Perhaps it would be better if truckers continued to subsidize the low prices consumers now pay? Companies like Walmart rely on cheap freight, (and low wages), in order to offer savings to consumers and increase their enormous profits.
And what about the many jobs overseas that were created with the help of cheap freight? What would happen to the poor foreigners if the Job Creators stopped creating jobs in places like China, because greedy truckers made freight less cost-effective?
No, we must continue to selflessly accept mileage pay, and continue to cheerfully donate our time, all for a better World! Literally everyone is relying upon us. Let’s be honest – if we were taking in this kind of pay in 1982, wouldn’t we be happy? So why can’t we be happy now? And please, more rules.
Ahmad says
I say hooray to senator Collins and the president now it should be real life in acting like when you should drive you should drive and when you are sleepy you should sleep we need a gadget for that so who wants to be the designer of this machine. . .
Jason says
Does this suspend the 30 minute break rule too? The article only mentions the 34 hr restart, but wasn’t the 30 min break part of the same ruling back in june?
Bryan says
A lot of true and interesting comments here folks, but they are of absolutely no use back and forth to each other on this page.
Douglas Kirk says
Okay Bryan. You come up with a way to force lawmakers to listen to US and I give you my personal guarantee that 100% of the industry will back you. I personally favor tying them all to their chairs for as long as it takes for them to get the message. Elect me president and see how long it takes to abolish stupidity. Have a fun week boys and girls.
Johnny Edwards says
I’m not a trucker. Took the class, went to school and got my class A, then spent a week OTR and realized it wasn’t for me. But I learned a great deal and gained a new respect for truckers and the job you do. Your comments need to go out to the general public. Like me before my trucker education, the general public has no clue how difficult your jobs are. Maybe am editorial in a major newspaper or magazine? Any way, I thank you all for doing a job most of us 4 wheelers wouldn’t do if it was the last job on earth. GOD bless.
Jc says
I love how everyone’s opinion is stated that if you can’t do this or that you shouldn’t be a trucker. Get over yourself. Can and want to or forced to are much different. Worked 26 years as hourly worker with over time pay after so many hours a day or week. Now driving….. Rules and pay for truckers is the worst . The only job out there that they can work you like a dog ALL day and pay crap. Sure there are some good ones out there like everything else, but as a whole ,it blows. Over worked and underpaid . Give up too much with family and normal life. Even the hourly driver. How convinent for the industry , they can work you 14 hours a day pay straight the whole time. No other job like that. As a whole the time off sucks. You would think more Vacation time would be given for those that are away all week , or two weeks from family. I understand there side , if the truck isn’t running they aren’t making money, but that’s the price of doing business. Until they fined away for a robot to drive, these are human beings. People that want to do nothing but drive all the time , fine you should have that freedom . Just don’t like how everyone should fit that mold or do something else. And you should be compensated better then whats out there now.
I don’t mind the job. Don’t want it to be my life. Or lifestyle. If you choose to that should be fine. Not right how these companies force a lifestyle on people and they pay poorly to boot.
Penny says
I’ve been waiting for this! And just to reiterate what most of you are saying, it was ridiculous to expect drivers to participate in this and believe it would help keep tired drivers off the road! There are just too many variables to consider when trying to make safer driving situations related to truck drivers. If you take away their nighttime driving that is sometimes not only convenient, but necessary to get the load delivered on time, you are taking away valuable time which increases the chance the driver fatigue. They will be pushed into working more days to make up for lost time. Not only would this cause more drivers to be on the road during congested daytime periods, but also cause problems for companies that need to operate, load and unload trucks, at night. Thank you Senator Collins.
Tony Z says
As an LTL truck driver, the 2 periods of 1-5 is great, already having weekends off, means more time at home. On the other hand, if I were an OTR driver, I would want the old rule of a strait 34 hour reset, for 2 periods of 1-5 would suck. As far as the 30 minute break, in the LTL business for those home everyday, I believe you deserve a 30 minute lunch after a reasonable time at work. But as an OTR driver, I wouldn’t want it. What I’m trying to say is, that it’s not “a one size fits all “rule. There are different types of trucking. In LTL, your home more and the pay is a lot higher. In OTR trucking, your gone more and the past is lower. One rule will benefit one driver, and be a pain to another.
L.C.W. says
I drive in Canada only &can’t figure out why the rules aren’t = between U.S. & Canada.We have so much HOT AIR emanating out of Ottawa they could grow citrus fruit in the middle of winter. A nation wide strike 4 a week might wake someone up!!!! 4 years ago I ran straight truck in Calgary in @7a.m. home by 6 and took home $800 after tax. Was great .
George Mayhew says
I hate to say it bit I think we are at the point of no return
As soon as we let a political crack pot both at the local and federal level start regulating what we can and can’t do on the road we are doomed. Just look at where our government has us now, at a point at where we may never recover from. And how many local governments get it right too? The trucking industry should be run by people in this industry only. 12 men and woman as a governing body that makes all the rules pertaining to this industry. This body is voted on by those of us who have been here for at least 5 years. Let us regulate our selves for once. Here is the big one. This country needs a new interstate system for just truckers. Think of how many jobs could be created to build and maintain these highways. How nice it would be to drive on a highway created just for big rigs. Let’s face it that’s how our roads were first created. One man’s dream. That’s it for me, I have ranted enough.
Jason says
Rather, a new highway system for 4-wheelers….considering we paid for the majority of the current system. Why should we have to pay for another one? But we both know that neither will happen as both are unreasonable.
jetlag says
I must say ,I am very pleased about the suspension of the 34 reset rule as it was .34 hours is 34 hours .Weather its at the end of a week or in the middle, like another driver said ,days of the week and times of the day are not really the same for drivers as they are for most others.”2 periods of 1 am to 5 am ” was alot of egg headed nonsense. And there are times when those 70 hours are squandered by dispatch or shippers or recievers and a reset is a good way to slow things down a bit and get some rest when its needed.I would think most sensible people would want us to use that reset as often as we want. I know I would if I was outside lookin in.Of all the new rules that have been put into effect in the last 20 or so years ,the 34 reset as it stands right now , is about the best one and makes the most sense out of all of “em. Yes,Thank you Sen.Collins !
Marvin W Day says
I feel that this step, is one step, in the right direction , that will help reduce the over regulated burdens that the Dot, Fmcsa, and other law enforcement officials, have strapped the professional driver with!!
If the law makers wish to regulate the trucking industry the way they have been trying to, in the past few years, they should pass the same regulations on the ” Winnebago driver pulling the 30′ pontoon boat, behind his 40′ bus”. Who have no restrictions, or regulations, no training, no limits in his driving time, much less a physical or drug test requirement!!
Same with the weekend worriers, with their 35′ rv, and a dually diesel, quad cab truck, running the interstate and local highways, also with no regulation of any kind , for them to have to meet, such as us as truck drivers do!!!
If the law makers wish to regulate the truck driver in such ways, it should pass down the fore mentioned drivers, and down to all the law enforcement agency’s as well!!
With the same physical requirement, medial cards, drug test, sleep apnea test, and all the other over regulated legislation they’re trying to impose on the truck driver!!!
With it reaching back to the head of the Dot, The Fmcsa, And the Dot and law enforcement officers aswell!!!