I hear a lot of complaining about the HOS, and I agree with most of it, but at the same time, I can also see how they are necessary to keep everyone safe. What I'd like to know, though, is how would you fix them? What do you think is reasonable?
Lets brainstorm a little and see if we, the drivers, the ones whose lives and livelihoods are most affected by these rules, can come up with a better plan, something that would work. Maybe if we come up with something good we can make the powers that be listen to us. (OK, maybe I'm dreaming, but it wouldn't hurt to try, right?)

Here's what I'd like to see in my ideal HOS (and I'm kinda thinking as I type here, free-flowing ideas, so forgive me if it rambles a bit):

OK, so a person needs, on average, about 8 hours of sleep out of every 24 hours, so you mandate 8 hours in the sleeper berth. But, sometimes you gotta get up and move your truck, make a delivery, deal with some joker backing into you at the truckstop, etc... so, you must be able to break up those eight hours to make it flexible without a penalty. In addition to those eight hours, and in order to insure those eight are used for sleep, add an extra two hours of off duty time for showering, exercise, eating, fishing, posting here, or whatever.

So, that makes for a 10 hour break, which leaves 14 hours left in the day - so far not too different from the way its broken up now.

I guess the main thing that needs to be changed would be the ability to break up those breaks and driving time, get rid of the 14 hour clock thing, and just mandate that a driver can't do more than 14 hours of combined driving and or on duty time in any 24 hour period (not necessarily midnight to midnight)...

or... wait... how about this... If you always track it from midnight to midnight...
Say you wake up from your eight hours sleeping at 6 am, then take an hour off duty to jog, shower, eat breakfast, then get moving at 7am. That gives you one more hour of off duty time, and two more hours of sleep that you have to get before midnight that night. You can take those three hours whenever you need to, as long as you take them before midnight - like if you drive all day without another break, you would have to stop at 9pm go off duty from 9 to 10, then sleep 10 to midnight. If you sleep a full eight at one stretch, that gives you 6 hours toward fulfilling your mandated rest the next day, getting up at 6 am again.

Am I making any sense?

Anyway, I'm rambling and thinking aloud and probably not really saying anything.
What do you guys and gals think, can we codify an HOS that would make both truckers and safety Nazis happy?

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The 14 hour clock needs to be able to be stopped, especially when you are spending 5 hours at a loading dock. That's one of the biggest problems that I see with the current HOS rules.

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In my opinion, The only thing the hos do, is allow the feds a way to write more ticket's......Fix the fmcsa, and the dot...And I think it woulb be a much better world......But that is just my opinion...

I think if they would go back to the way it was and add a 34hr reset it would be fine.

Ah Hell, let's run the HOS like they do in Mexico: Drive nonstop 'til you get there.

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Great thread Jinx.

I've been curious to know about drivers who drove under both the old and new HOS regulations. I know that they both have strengths and weaknesses, but it seems that the ability to break up driving time with the old rules were favored by a lot of folks.

Any input on this?

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Id keep the 11hr rule within a 14hr period, allow the 14hr clock to be stopped, allow sleeper berth time to be split with a minimum of 5hrs in the sleeper, and get rid of the 70hr rule.

This method probally has more holes than swiss cheese!

It probably will to one of those so called 'Highway Safety' groups!

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I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was going to blame you.

Dynamite comes in small packages, Nitro comes in smaller ones, take your pick!

Keep it simple: 15 hours consecutive on duty (no distinction between driving and on-duty), 9 hour break can be split in two periods with a two hour minimum. 34-hour restart. 15 hours consecutive can not be stretched with fictitious breaks. The only way to go off-duty is to get in the sleeper or take a full 9 hours off.

Just let eveybody run the way they want to, you know your own body and what you can and cannot do. I know officers of the law that work 80 to 100 hours a week, they have no laws about how many hours they may work.

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