The study that the FMCSA was supposed to complete before enacting its HOS changes has finally been published. Despite being months late – so late in fact that FMCSA administrator Anne Ferro has been chastised by members of congress multiple times for its tardiness – the study reveals nothing much to be surprised about. In fact the results are almost exactly what the FMCSA had been predicting. And yet, many in the industry feel that it still does not adequately justify the July 1st HOS changes.
Though the FMCSA is presenting their findings as data that can be used to understand the driving habits and abilities of the millions of professional truck drivers in America, only 106 drivers actually participated in the study… just 36 of whom were OTR drivers. They were broken into groups to test the effectiveness of different HOS options. One group had only five participants – a sample size that is far from optimal.
Chief among the study’s findings was that for the majority of drivers, overall attentiveness and safety was greatest using the hours and restart provisions that are currently in effect.
“This new study confirms the science we used to make the hours-of-service rule more effective at preventing crashes that involve sleepy or drowsy truck drivers,” said FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro. “For the small percentage of truckers that average up to 70 hours of work a week, two nights of rest is better for their safety and the safety of everyone on the road.”
The trouble with these findings is of course (other than the fact that other studies not funded by the FMCSA have directly contradicted them) that just because something is true for the majority of drivers, does not mean that it is true for every driver. By forcing every driver to adhere to what works for the majority of drivers, you are actually forcing the minority that it does not work for to become less safe.
Additionally, the study does nothing to address concerns that have been voiced by the industry, including the assertion that forcing drivers onto the road at the busiest times of the day will cause more accidents than the changes will prevent.
Both the ATA and OOIDA have already released statements saying that the study does nothing to justify the HOS changes that are in effect. Even Congressman Richard Hanna, one of the members of Congress who chastised the FMCSA for their study being past due, called the study “worthless” and “half-baked.”
Next Story: Pilot Executive Pleads Guilty, Faces Up To 20 Years in Prison
Source: fmcsa, overdrive, thetrucker, overdrive
Well, I’m not a fan of the new reset rule. It makes the assumption that everybody drives at night and therefore either hurts productivity or causes the driver to break his circadian rhythm and drive fatigued. I also think that there should be a way to log sleep times so that a driver may take a nap when he/she needs it and not have it count against on duty time for that day. I have a feeling this system will continue to evolve.
I think the 30 min. rest period was a good idea the only problem I have is they should have extended the 14 hour rule now we only have 13.5 hours to work in a day. Less than that if you count the required 15min pretrip .
15 min postrip,unload,reload,fuel
You only have to flag a pretrip. You must show the time for your post trip. Had a audit and that was he had to change on your logs. But not that big of a deal our Drivers Daily Logbook on the computer makes the inspection for for the end of day. And btw the fed cares not about money or your expenses. That how they justify safety.
Also I think the 14 hr rule is the most unsafe rule that has come out of the FMCSA I have seen trucks going faster and making unsafe moves all in effort to beat the clock. it also causes a constant state of anxiety.
How can the fmcsa tell me when to be tried or sleepy, that’s something only my body and god can do, and riding in a sleeper truck for a week didn’t show or teach her a dam thing . tell her to do it for 37 years then she will have a idea and only then. The rule makes a driver go in rush hour traffic, and when tried or sleepy. This rule takes away my ability to make decisions about what is safe for me and the other people driving on the road, but she knows more about trucking than I do with 37 years on the road.
I have 36yrs and i’m with you on that, Ferro and the rest of those imbeciles dont have a clue..
Before you know it “in god we trust will be taken off the dollar then”martial law’s next.
Semper fi
Not to mention how many people have time to stop and help someone on the side of the road? I agree, over the years everyone has to go faster and be in a big hurry to comply. When the EBOR’s were added, it only put more pressure on the driver to cut corners, hurry, become impatient, etc.
The former HOS and the new HOS coupled with the EBOR’s has made the drivers world more hostile. Add to that clueless driver and other managers (how many people have a manager that still holds a current CDL and Medical Card and actually drove for at least 3 years?) and its NO wonder that the annual turn over rate for the industry is 90-120%.
Personally I believe the change hurts us. As a company driver I am constantly faced with working a straight 14 hours without stopping because one 30 minute break, forced on me every day at about the same time causes me more fatigue not less. Before the enactment I could take breaks in rhythm with my day, not worried to much about an extra 15 here or there to rest, easy it use the bathroom. Now I force myself to wait, not drink enough do I don’t have to stop to pee, drive longer than I am comfortable doing in order to reserve my “break” for the forced one. In that break I quickly eat, go to the bathroom and hop back in my truck to rush down the road because it’s now the only way I can make enough money to justify even being out here on the road. The New rules just suck and make my work harder and more frustrating.
Personally I believe the change hurts us. As a company driver I am constantly faced with working a straight 14 hours without stopping because one 30 minute break, forced on me every day at about the same time causes me more fatigue not less. Before the enactment I could take breaks in rhythm with my day, not worried to much about an extra 15 here or there to rest, eat or use the bathroom. Now I force myself to wait, not drink enough so I don’t have to stop to pee, drive longer than I am comfortable doing in order to reserve my “break” for the forced one. In that break I quickly eat, go to the bathroom and hop back in my truck to rush down the road because it’s now the only way I can make enough money to justify even being out here on the road. The New rules just suck and make my work harder and more frustrating.
I realize that this is off-topic, and that many of the notes following these articles make similar errors, but it seems as though journalists should be held to a slightly higher standard of language skills competency than truck drivers or internet trolls.
It’s “past due” – not “passed due”. Where is the editorial review? The credibility of an information source is usually determined – in part- based upon the diligence with which they research and present information. If a news source does not even use the language correctly, is it likely that they checked the factual information more diligently than their spelling?
It’s a feel-good story; drivers generally prefer less regulation, and this story suggests that an element of regulation was poorly thought out – and should perhaps be abolished. It challenges the diligence and/or credibility of a government study – but imagine that some influential congressperson read the article, and spotted this inconsequential but glaring mistake… does the writer or the website want to make a difference? Or just make drivers feel good?
Fixed, thanks for the note.
Dear editor,
Please put your red pen back in your pocket. The english lesson does not enhance the flow of pertinent information in the least.
You will come to understand the situation when you are sitting naked on the curb without even a red pen because trucks and truckers are regulated out of business. In short …. no trucks no anything.
hours of service cause a lot of problems for drivers! The people who make these rules do not understand the concept. Some drivers can drive 13-14 hrs without rest and they are fine while others cannot. With the rules in place drivers are forced to drive sleepy. SCENARIO Joe gets in his truck at 6 am and begins his day. by 6 or 7 pm he stops for the hour of service rules. Only problem is Joe cant sleep. So Joe watches tv or goes in the truck stop and hangs out etc. By midnight Joe is ready to sleep, but Joe has a deadline to drop this load , so at 4 am he begins to drive. with this scenario, Joe is driving on 4 hrs of sleep. SCENARIO 2 Joe begins his day at 6 am and drives til 10 pm which may be 16 hrs but Joe is not tired and has stopped for fuel, lunch, dinner etc. by 11:00 Joe is sleeping as he is tired. Joe then wakes up at 7 am and begins his day. Joe is refreshed and has not driven sleepy. I think HOS rules should only show 8 hrs of rest daily, when the driver needs it! This is the normal for most people. They get up at 7 go to work come home etc and then sleep. Drivers are forced daily to alter sleep patterns due to HOS rules and this is where the problem is. Drivers should only have to show 8 continuos hours of sleep and a couple of rest periods. This lets the driver choose when he gets tired as to when he sleeps and would make the driver safer. By forcing the driver to stop when the driver is not sleepy, puts everyone at risk! These rules do not help the driver as it forces the driver to drive when he is tired and forces the driver to rest when he cannot sleep and therfore puts a sleepy tired driver on the road if they do not sleep when forced to stop for the day. With an 8 hr sleep rule it would benefit all drivers as those who are tired after 8-10 hrs can stop and sleep when they are tired and those who can drive 16 hrs can rest when they are tired. How simple is this? The cause of most accidents I have seen is from lack of sleep which impairs judgement and a lot simply fall asleep at the wheel from lack of sleep. An 8 hr daily sleep rule would benefit all drivers and makes it simple to log.
But Lisa, that would mean we wouldn’t have a level playing field. We couldn’t have that. I agree with you. Show me a driver that sleeps 10 hrs a day and I’ll show you a government that can do something right.
The 14 hr rule sucks. I agree it should be extended to 15 hrs. The reason is this. Pre trip and fuel stops. I also think the 14 hr clock should stop when you are at the shipper or receiver so you dont violate hos for having a live ld or live unld. The 14 hr rule should be redone. Thats my opinion.
This whole HOS nonsense annoys me to no end. The reality of Truck Drivings is this. A driver must drive 2500 to 3000 mi per week to make a minimal living. In order to do this he must drive 500 to 600 mi. per day. That is a minimum of 8.5 to 10 hours of solid driving at 6o mph. That does not take into consideration traffic, road conditions, fuel stops, eating and showering, all of which you must be awake to perform. Any, or all of these factors can add as much as 3 to 5 hours of awake time, regardless of how a driver logs it, he is still “awake.” Now, consider a typical driving day. The driver is at his delivery destination with a 6 am appointment time. He takes his paper work to the shipping/receiving window, they tell him to wait either in a caged waiting area or possibly in his truck for a door assignment. Two hours later they tell him to back into a door. Now the wait to be unload begins. Sometime 2-5 hours later the truck is finally empty, BOL is ready and driver is on his way to his reload 1-3 hours travel time away. After stopping to have some breakfast and use the restroom. possibly fuel the driver is now ready to repeat the same “hurry up and wait” game as he did at the receivers location. Now 1-3 hours and sometimes more, the driver is loaded and ready to continue to his destination 300-600 mi. away. The problem is that the it is now 3pm-6pm the driver has been up since 5:30 am which is about 10 to 12 hours. He is now faced with an 8-10 hour drive to his next delivery destination which he will reach at anywhere from 2 am to 5am. this means the driver will have from 1-4 hours of “real” sleep before he repeats the same scenario each day of the week. He has been awake for 15 to 20 or more hours. Forget the “Science,” that’s ridiculous, lets look at the reality of it. The problem as I see it is that as long as a drivers pay is a per/mile scale there is going to be a problem with fatigue. The people trying to legislate and regulate this industry need to spend some time in a truck under real dispatch to understand the reality of the issues behind driver fatigue, all “Science” aside………….
Listen up, Ann Ferro: 2 days in a truck with a driver is NOT enuff time to see the FULL extent of what you’re trying to accomplish!!! Try 2 WEEKS…a MONTH…then, come back and say these new rules work!!!! The Gov’t hasn’t a CLUE!!!!! Time to LEAVE WELL ENUFF ALONE!!!!
Did she ride with a comp driver with elec log or owner op or owner op driver that the truck can roll with it with loose leaf logs,cause if she rode in a slow UNDER the speed limit truck with comp log for no less than 2 weeks then cool
She rode with an owner op leased to Landstar that has electronic logs and is one of them Mr. super safety and drive slow all the time. The ride was prearranged. Not like they just took some guy like me (No electronic logs or nothing) that is leased to a small company (4 company trucks, 3 O/O). The trip was very well planned and scheduled and she did sleep in the truck one night while he slept in a hotel so she could get the feel for how a driver lived on the road. I say get in my truck with me for a week and see how things really are out here, not this ride that if you ask me was set up so nothing would go wrong. Total BS if you ask me. 14 years (ten as an owner op) and I am about ready to hang it up.
2 days in a stretch sleeper… might as well have been in a limo. Totally socialist government, with the telematics sellers, Public Citizen,MADD/PATT/ATA/ OOIDA/TCA all chiming in to get their piece of the action.
Face it Drivers….The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was written at a time at the end of the Great Depression, with WW2 coming and drivers, even then the bread and butter commodities movers of the nation, were designated as ‘unskilled labor’ by the Act. So no overtime pay…yet these days FMCSA and the powers that drive this want you on the time clock, and as OTR drivers you get cents per mile. How ironic that they get everything the want, yet dictate your pay and how you live, in a box smaller than a prison cell with little time off. 76 years as an indentured servant ….now the smart phone/technology takes away any privacy left in a matter of 5 years. The NEW AGE SLAVERY.
This is my 43rd year of driving. I have never seen anything that is going to cause more accidents than this new hos. If you get tired through the course of the day you can’t take a nap for 2 reasons the first is your going to use up your 14 hours the second these carries say that they are all about safety. In reality they are about moving freight. There is more accidents today but go back and see how many more trucks are registered today. Also look at how many more cars are registered
Get some real truck drivers and people from the A.T.A. and O
.I.D.A..to be involved in the testing to get some real prospective.
Do you know who the ata is?? The presidents all come from the big ripoff companies England Schnieder JB hunt ATA is nothing but a scam voice for the the big companies to push their agendas…AtA is pure b.s. has nothing to do with real truckers or owner operators. They were the ones to push obrs so the could spy on drivers.. the are behind the hours of service.. wake up man..
Only 106 drivers used too pilot the program, and most were local drivers. Really? This is insulting, I expect alot more effort from people in such positions as the fmcsa, where serious change for my industry, and more importantly, my paycheck, to put way more effort into studies. When are they gunna start holding people who drive something other than commercial vehicles (four wheelers) responsible for the trouble they cause on the road ways? There are good and bad drivers in our industry, but, im tired of seeing the blame shuffled to us so easly.
Did they all run the same loads, to the same part of the country?, same time of day, same weather, same equipment, same dispatch/shipper/receiver. No…. this is just a loaded gun pointing at you and me.
The hours of service are not all bad ,but if you run in nebraska all the time you need to have a break more often to check and see if you have broken suspension parts from all the poor highways.
The government put there 2 cents in and of course they don’t even have a clue to what really goes on out on the road.
Why am I not surprised. Isn’t this the gov. that gave us obummer care?? I love it when people who don’t have any experience in trucking make all the rules. Hey our government at work. (LOL) They have to justify their jobs some how. Why not make ours more miserable.
I’ve been reading this, and other, trucking forums for about 10 years now. Change the dates and the posts are more or less the same. “Obummer” ain’t got a damn thing to do with it.
Stop blaming Obama for the same crap that was happening under Bush.
Rule changes such as these are what happens when people that have no idea what it entails to do this job are placed in charge. Stop bowing down to special interest groups and get off your duff Anne! Do a complete study not just a sample of .0001% of the industry. Did you think of how the change affects teams? With the way the new passenger rule is you are forcing drivers to falsify their logs! You need to go out in a truck and try to live with the rules you have enacted. Only then will you find that you have done absolutely nothing to improve safety. As I have always maintained, when a rule is changed the only persons that are effected are those that are trying to do it correctly to begin with. The outlaws will always be there. The main problem is that you are not fixing the problem as the majority, 83%, of car truck accidents are caused by cars. Solve that problem then you might have accomplished something!
Sample size of 106 and only about 1/3 OTR drivers when the number of drivers is in the hundreds of thousands. That sample size wouldn’t even pass the requirements for a junior high science class! Of course the objective was to “validate” the answer/solution they came up with. They had a solution/answer before they had defined the REAL question and then selectively fabricated the data to support their solution/answer.
No surprise here since their clueless leader at the helm of our nation lies about things all the time and appoints these people.
I and others I know have been VERY NEGATIVELY impacted with the stupidity of the new HOS in many areas. Of course one only has to look at history to see the results of the imbeciles dressed up as morons trying to control and run businesses. The result is ALWAYS the SAME – the industry and business they regulate along with those working in it are always severely impacted.
So they only used 36-OTR drivers as part of their “sample” and those 36 drivers get to represent the THOUSANDS of OTR drivers out there? This is just another example of statistical reporting using a flawed data pool – something the government excels at.
By requiring that the 34-hour reset must take place over two nights, just means that drivers like my BF – one of those thousands of OTR drivers – end up running day-to-day for his hours and rarely gets a 34-hour reset at all. At least not until he gets to come home once a month. Sometimes he’s out for 4-5 weeks and is running day to day, shutting down sometimes after only a few hours of driving until his clock resets at midnight and he picks up a few more hours. Dispatchers and trip planners don’t give a crap about the drivers compliance with HOS when they plan the trips (especially the 34-hr reset); it’s up to the driver to figure out how he can meet the deadline without being able to run a full day when he’s maxed out his hours.
Yep, just talked to a small company owner who won’t hire a driver unless they are willing to run on the recap with an occasional 34. Pushed to the limit of low profits, even with good equipment and good/reliable drivers.
dispatchers on the qualcomm and your phone while you’re sleeping….just numerous distractions
in the day… so do you really rest….and the 34 hour reset can become over 50 if you don’t play by the rules..
I’ve been an owner Opp for over 30 years.
Been driving since 1977.
Personally I haven’t done a 34 hr reset since the new rule of 2 nights for 1 34. I run my recap hours and actually do as many miles as
When I did a 34 hr reset.
My biggest gripe is with the 14 hour rule. I can’t take
A nap in the mid day. Also,I have to run faster speeds to
Make sure I don’t run over the world 14 hours.
The 1/2 hr break is no big deal. Takes longer than that
To stop and eat.
What I really wish we could do a split bunk
The 8 in sleeper and 2 off doesn’t get as much rest as 2 5 hrs
Rest periods.
The trucking industry is getting out of hand.
Regulations from people that haven’t a clue..
Thanks for the time
Not sure how many miles you run but according to the laws of diminishing returns your math is wrong.. you can’t the same miles unless its very few and all your loading and unloading and breaks are exactly the same. . So either your just doing a little dedicated drop and hook or your sight seeing.. obviously hours of service causes drivers loads they normally could gave done.. .
A study using only 36 OTR drivers? Not worth the paper it is written on. I’m really glad I’ve retired.
Simple Solution!!
If we are regulated by the hour,WE SHOULD BE PAID BY THE HOUR!!
If we’re paid by the mile,THE WE SHOULD BE REGULATED BY THE MILES!!
Either way would simplify our lives,and enforcement of the regulations.
Matt aka goinpostal
YEP. FLSA ‘ALL THE WAY’!
Q1: Why can’t HOS regs simply be designed to let drivers (including OTR ones) work the same shift every day?
Q2: Wouldn’t that make them safer than anything else possibly could?
Answer to Q1: Because industry would never allow that to happen.
Answer to Q2: Yes.
That requires the hourly approach.. and FLSA says you are ‘unskilled’. So no guaranteed overtime or hourly pay. Since 1938. Cents per mile guarantees that you, the OTR driver , are never paid for your work.
greed and corruption…straight from our leaders…inside the industry and out.
The 30 min break actually causes me to be tired! This is garbage. I wonder if she could go a week without using anything that gets delivered by a truck.
Was this supposed to be a surprise to any of us? Had to know it was coming. I don’t tell the FMCSA how to do their job but they always have and always will tell us how to do ours. I don’t worry about the new HOS rules I’m on paper its easy to get around that crap. Never worry about a 30 minute break never worry about a 34 with my rest periods or my 168 hours from the start of the first restart. People say drivers like me are the reason for these rules no, we can’t be…because I see a hell of a lot more trucks on elogs in the ditch and in accidents than I do companies that are on paper who don’t follow all the rules 100%.
The sad truth about this and many other situations is that personal responsibility is dead in this country. It is getting like this in all sectors. The government has to tell you what’s best for you because you aren’t intelligent enough to make your own decisions. It’s all in the interest of safety is how they sell it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Log books and accidents have nothing to do with one another. The proof is there. Just look at the data supplied by our own FMCSA on Safer Web-Company snapshot. It lists accidents and inspections of both drivers and their trucks. I am leased to a company that is all owner operator and does not run EOBR. If you look at driver inspections ..ie..logbooks, we are at 3% failure or 1 in 33 inspections. Companies who run EOBR are much lower. Typically @.2% or 1 in 500. So the appearance is that these companies at .2 are much safer. Not true. I found more than one company that had this same .2 criteria however has had more accidents than we have. These are big companies with 5000 -10000 trucks. And when I say more accidents I’m talking relative to their size. My company has 2200 units and has been involved in 130.accidents in the past 2 years. Keep in mind this does not show fault. It only shows there was involvement. Another major flaw in this system since I was involved in one last year but not at fault. It’s still one of the 130. So 2200/130 is 16.92. Roughly one driver in 17. The next companies I’m listing are all EOBR. CR England..5200 units..650 accidents. 5200/650 is 1 in 8 drivers. Swift 15200/1520 is 1 in 10 drivers. JB Hunt 11660/770. 1 in 15. I can go on and on finding company after company who have much better log inspection numbers but cannot match our 1 in 17. I thought the bottom line was accident prevention. That should be the definition of safety. Well quite clearly we are doing better than most with no EOBR and a failure on log inspections many times greater than many. What this proves is that it’s all about control and not safety. And I just proved it with real #s.
My intent was not to bash these companies but to focus on recognizable ones that drivers know.
You are right, it`s control and justification of salaries earned what move them to make our life miserable every few years, never in the truck industry life, has been trucking more safe than today, comparing data from 20 years ago and today, we are in general 17% more safe than before, so, what is the real cause of the HOS and all the fumme?, justification of salaries, they can`t be sitting in their offices and going on holyday twice a year if they not justified they hours with something to prove, that mean, making the HOS even if they have not a minimum clue of what they doing, they heard a bell ringing in church and make a fire bell from it, the result is that driving OTR will be a mess for the 80% of us.
I have been driving OTR for 22 years after doing 5 like local, from the 22 years on the road it have been mostly coast to coast, single and in team sometimes, when i work single, i try to begin early in the morning, around 6:am, driving until noon non-stop where i stop to fuel, eat and rest for 30 to 45 minutes, begin again to drive around 2:00 pm all the way to 9:00 pm when i do take a shower, eat and go to bed for 7 hours ( never could sleep more than 7 hours straight even at home) to begin next day at 6:00 am again, that`s mean around 13 driving hours a day but on my way, my last own fault accident was 15 years ago bucking up in the JFK airport in NYC when some small truck driver tried to get to my assigned door ahead of me, every person is different, you can`t impose all drivers to follow a preform schedule when our work it`s so complex changing from day to day, i assured you that this new HOS regulations are going to make our roads more unsafe, not safer that what they was, and drivers are gonna bring home less money that there were doing a year ago, that`s a fact.I am sure that the ones who did make the new HOS are getting a raise in salary this year, our earnings from now on are going down because the lose in productivity, go figure.
There are no good solutions to human nature. companies want to push drivers to 24/7, while I’m sure if paid by the hour many drivers would as slow and safe as they could. They could accomplish the same thing if they said drivers most have 10+ hours straight off duty for every 24 hours, and require 30 minutes at least every 6.5 hours of driving.
EOBR’s may enforce HOS compliance, but has nothing to do with driving habits. EOBR’s don’t prevent drivers from going through yellow lights as they turn red, or back off the power a little when it first starts raining.
The new hos rules are about as ridiculous as a chimp riding a unicycle. The FMCSA needs to be abolished and rebuilt with individuals who actually have a damn clue on how truckin works and how it is out here.
I have said this before and will repeat it here: the government is looking to extend their hold on the early release prisoner/parolee by providing CDL’s in prison, an early out program complete with ankle bracelet, EOBR’s. Within ten years the government will be running an early release project complete with parolees driving in our seats – for a few dollars an hour, a parollee will be able to step out into civilian life with a job. No more OTR they will set it up like the bus system; you’ll drive x hours switch trailers and return to your home base. It might add weeks to a delivery but hey, what does that matter to the DOT? Someone who has never had to make a real pay check by actually making something happen? DOT will be responsible for actually shutting this country down.
106 drivers actually participated in the study… just 36 of whom were OTR drivers. They were broken into groups to test the effectiveness of different HOS options? What kind of test is that? There are over 10,000 OTR’s out there on the road and they only tested 36. Who are these other drivers? I thought it only applied to OTR. Local gets to go home.
Ever driven local? 14 hour days and God help you if you have to commute to work. All I did was work and sleep. At least now when I do get home I’m rested and my days off are mine.
Man, of all the pictures they could have used why do we have to see some trucker’s stinky feet?
Lots of sore points here, good. Drivers have been griping about pay that hasn’t gone up, and has actually went down considerably, yet the plates, permits fees and taxes still go through the roof. Add the Obamacare nightmare to the mix, and now ALL of the work force is in serious trouble. logs the way they are are nothing but a pain, especially in bad weather. Eight hours to got two hundred miles across Missouri on 2/3. How many of those drivers that wrecked were rookies that were up against the clock? How many drivers were forced to drive after the e-logs were out, and they needed to find a safe haven? How many of those drivers will lose their jobs because of THAT? Ferro, if you tell me that it can’t happen, I’ll call you a liar to your face. It does, and I’ve seen it happen. Get this: I don’t NEED this job, I have other talents. Get that through your head right now. I’m not over a barrel, but I’m not quitting, either. To quit is to turn my back on my fellow man, and say you won. Personally, I’m hoping the country does fall apart. When it does, you will be hurt, too. You can’t escape it, and there will be no way for you and the rest of the elite to avoid your own mess.
These Orwellian rules on the E-logs are just a cube off of an iceberg. Go be an owner operator, or better yet, try to start a small fleet. Go wait for six weeks for your DOT and MCC numbers. Then be in a state like Illinois or Wisconsin, where it could take another six weeks to get an apportioned plate. Then the permits, inspections, etc. Then find a broker to hire you on with no past history. Do it and continue eating, pay your rent/house, your other bills. I dirty dog double dare you. The real bet would be if you could financially survive it. Try it of 30k per annum.
You rulemakers think you have some panacea for all the problems of the trucking world, when in reality, you are the problem.
Driver recruitment, hiring, capture, conscripting, drafting, whatever you want to call it, is way down. They learn about the problems you cause while they are still in the school, and run screaming for the hills. Experienced drivers are leaving in droves. They also head for aforementioned hills.
Pity, really. You think that abusing and punishing the drivers is going to make life easier, when all you will succeed in doing is scaring off ALL of the drivers.
Good luck with that. I guess you people didn’t learn anything when fuel went through the roof. Maybe its time to shut down again. Only this time, we should sell the trucks.
i dont have problem with 30 min break i do have problem with the 168 hours between 34 hours restart . it would make it better if they had any time you are off 34 hours with a 1am to 5 am times two you should get a restart not every one works mon day to fri with weekends off that its my only problem with hos that needs to be fixed . thanks D.A.C. 25years driveing