Breaking the Industry

Not just that, it will also require alot of companies, particularly those who rely on just-in-time, will require heavy overhauls to their supply chains. They can simply use 3 drivers, but when you are talking hauls of 2+ days, it'll get a little tough.

 

First off, the sky is not falling. If FMCSA implements the proposed rule changes, ATA and others will probably sue; it won't be over anytime soon.

It's possible that a 10-hour driving limit (which we lived with from 1939 until the current HOS were implemented[from 1939 to 1962 it 10 driving hours a day; after 1962 it was 10 driving hours after 8 hours off]) will turn out to be a negotiated compromise, which means that no one will get everything they want.

http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=73024&news_category_id=3

It's not over yet. Though the "safety" groups want an 8-hour limit, they won't get it. And "commerce nationwide" isn't going to "grind to a halt."

If you have concerns, you're free to add them to the Docket. (Someone at FMCSA will read what you write. After that, who knows? )

 

Not to worry, it is all planned out,

any extra cost will be placed on the driver.

Don't believe it,

Watch !!!!!

 

Having read the proposed changes to the HOS rules, I really don't have too much of a problem with them.

Mandatory 30 minute break in the first 7 hours.
Who has a problem with that? Medically, you shouldn't sit for more than 4 hours anyway. When I was OTR, I stopped about every 3-4 hours anyway to get out and move around a little.

Required 1 hour break.
Not to keen on being "required" to take a break, but if you stop to eat, or take a shower, there's your hour break. Also, you would be permitted to log time just sitting in your unit as a break, like when you are sitting at a shipper/reciever.

34hr restart requiring 2 12am-6am periods.
This is really beneficial to the driver, not so much for the companies. If your company "gaurentees"(sp) home for the weekend, they would have to have you home before midnight Friday. No more, get home 4am Saturday and have to be somewhere 9 hrs away at Monday 7am. Many companies consider that a weekend. You would now be home for the weekend.

11 hours to 10 hours on the driveline.
This is what will bite the drivers where it hurts. But, how many drivers actually drive 11 hrs?

Companies aren't likeing the changes, especially the 34hr restart. I the company I work for is really against it. We received messages telling us to write to congress opposing these changes, even provided form letters to use. I really don't have much of a problem with the changes. I was rarely "on duty" the entire 14hr day, or drove the full 11. Everybody will start screaming that they are cutting into their pocket book and that we won't be able to make as much money. It's not going to change that much. Drivers waste more time sitting getting loaded/unloaded than they do on the road.

 

I drive 11 hours alot during my 14 hour window. Dropping down to 10 hours will have a huge change on how we, in the company I drive for, do things and the things we won't beable to do anymore. It will have a big change on our income also.

 

Many LTL relays are based on 11 hours drivetime. Ask UPS, FedEx Freight and any other that do linehaul. The space between many places is not coverable on less than 11 hours at 65 mph, why in the hell do you think they went to 11 hrs in the first place? Yeah, pile three drivers up in a sleeper, that's the ticket...how....COZY!

 

The drop from 11 hrs to 10 is only a desire of the FMCSA, the Teamsters, and the so-called safety groups. It is NOT part of the HOS proposal, just put in there to let you know that FMCSA would desire it to be so. Basically it is a "heads up" that they will be targeting that also in the future.

That is the only part of the proposal I commented on. I agree that going from 11 to 10 will be a problem, especially with EOBR's. Those with recorders now can only use a fraction of the 11th hour, because they have to find a safe place to park before the clock ticks away.

Even if they do go to a 10 hr, it is not unsurmountable. Just will have to adjust schedule a little. I have found in using EOBR that I use the 8 and 2 split a little more frequently than before, and am able to meet appt times.

Keep in mind, that we only had 10 hours driving time in the old regulations, and we didn't have a 34 hr reset provision. Oh my God, how did anything get done? We did it. When the new HOS regs came along, we adjusted and are getting it done. This new proposal is really minor compared to the changes we had from the old regs. And that change really wasn't as terrible as it was made out to be.

I have seen a lot of changes in trucking the last 3 decades (like going to the CDL from the old Chauffers license), and this is not that big of a deal. It is just a hiccup. I don't like it, just like I usually don't like any changes. But it is what it is, and the court ruled that FMCSA had to do something. And the political class is putting pressure on FMCSA as well. This proposal is really a joke compared to what they could really have done to us.

I have gone over the entire 24 page proposal several times, and it is hardly worth loosing a minute of sleep over. Things like the 1/2 hr break prior to driving beyond the 7th hr is nothing. I have to get out of the truck and drain my bladder at least once in 7 hrs, so that will take care of that break. There is no requirement to 34 hr reset. Just keep driving on hours you pick up on the recap. Trucking did it that way for over 60 years prior to getting the 34 reset provision in 2003. Most times, if one plans properly, getting in the two "midnight to 0600" requirements of doing a 34 hr reset will not be difficult. You just have to think outside the box a little.

 

Well, that is not quite true.... FedEx, for instance, dispatches their loads at 47.5 mph average. Just because you see them running with their hair on fire is because they joke around at truck stops in the middle of the run instead of keeping the left door shut. Which also explains why they seem to be in the ditch quite a bit along I-80 in Iowa in snow storms. Most of the other LTL's can't go much over 62 mph, and their union contract makes sure they also stop and relax in the middle of their runs. They sure don't have their backsides fastened to the seat for 11 hrs at 65 mph. Even when I was doing LTL, and non-union, I was able to stop a couple of times in a nightly run and go to the can, get another thermos of coffee, and stretch my legs. My truck was spec'd pretty good for the early 90's, a 425 Cat, 13 speed, and would do 70 mph. I ran between 62 and 65 and was always where I needed to be on time. And I was non-union and had to break down and reassemble trains a couple of times a night, had to wait on wagons to arrive sometimes from other locations before I could build the train and move on. I started in Salina, stopped at Wichita, Ok City, (both locations I had to break apart and rebuild trains), and dumped off a pup from a set of triples at the OK/TX line and then ran on into downtown Dallas with a set of doubles in a morning rush hour. Did the return route back doing the same stops the next night and never was late. And I fueled my own truck in the middle of each run at the Cimmaron Truck Stop on I-35 in Oklahoma. Not even most LTL drivers today have to do all of that in 10 hrs driving time like we had to. LTL drivers today do not really have it all that bad. Most times they only have to hook up to a train that is already assembled for them, do a quick pretrip, and take off.

True, when we went to the new HOS rules in 2003, the LTL's shifted terminal locations a little to the new 11 hr compared to the old 10 hr driving. They will just have to shift back to the old way they did it for 60 years. Keep in mind the Teamsters union was dead set against going to 11 hrs and is one of the main forces behind getting it back to 10. LTL relays will just have to go back to the way they did it prior to the rules we run under now if the hours go back to 10. I did it pulling doubles, triples, and double 48's back in the early 90's for Chris Truck Line out of Wichita, and it won't be that big of a deal.

Keep things all in perspective.

 

The goofy proposal for the change to the 34 hr reset makes little sense outside of getting a single driver home for a whole weekend. I teamed with my wife for 2 years, and can't count the number of "rolling resets" we did.... with that in mind and this proposal, it could never happen with a team, short of aligning the planets.