New Hours Of Service

Not concerned one way or the other. I understand how some will get their panties all in a wad. I guess for me, it really is not that big of an issue because the bulk of my driving career, there was no 34 hr reset provision in the regulations. And 30 minutes being a hassle? Man, I am creative enough to know how to slip in a 30 min off duty somewhere between the 3rd and 8th hour. I am waiting for FMCSA to come up with something really difficult. This is all child's play. A hassle from the way we have gotten used to, for sure, but not as big of a change as when all the stuff we are used to now came about in 2003. The same wailing and gnashing of teeth went on back then as it is now. And the very same wailing and gnashing of teeth went on in 1991-1992 when the CDL came about. We learned to adjust, we will again. God help me, but I am starting to almost look forward to any change they come out with just to watch everyone pop a gasket over it. People holler that the current HOS needs to be left alone, but in 2003, they sure were fighting like raving lunatics against the current regulations. What happened? Ahh.... we figured out how to make it all work. We will again.

Heck, I am more concerned with nonsense CSA stuff. Like 7 points for not having a seatbelt on, but I can bust the speed limit by 10 mph and get less points, or have lights out and get less points. Now that is stupid and has nothing to do with safety, but nothing more than a revenue enhancement scheme.

 

All of it bothers me, but what makes absolutely zero sense is the part about not being able to take two resets in a week.


If anyone has any idea of how resting too much can lead to safety issues, please fill me in.


Now, typically this will never affect anyone, but when it does, it's gonna hurt. I just experienced a scenario this past week where, had this rule been in effect, I would have been screwed hard.


I started on a Tuesday after being at home and had a fresh 70. By friday, my miles were pretty good and i was on a roll. I was down to 30 hrs, but figured i'd be running well on recap the following week.


Then -- I get a message saying my truck was scheduled for a maintenance on Sunday evening. So I would be sitting all weekend. By the time the maintenance was done, it was Monday afternoon.


As I understand the new rule, I couldn't have used this as a reset -- even though I was off duty from saturday morning thru monday afternoon (which was 50+ hours).


Keep in mind, I was put up in a nice hotel .. With a swimming pool, decent restaurant and sleeping in a comfortable bed. Basically, it was like a paid mini vacation. But if this happened under the new rules I couldn't have used this as a reset??? I could run on recap for an unlimited duration .. But i can't take two resets in one week? Please tell me I'm misunderstanding the rule!

 

And you couldn't have used any form of reset for this prior to 2003. So, it begs the question, were we all screwed then? Apparently not, given the outrage expressed over the HOS we have now and how it would kill trucking when they came about in 2003. This has been my whole point all along. We bellyached when we got the rules we have now, and we are bellyaching about them being changed again, when we could all just stick with what we have had, and is still in effect.... 8/70 or 7/60 and just do a recap. Though the old 10/8 doesn't apply and now we are on a 11/10 thing, everything else remains the same as it has since 1938. Oops, also we don't have the great split sleeper concept we had before and now it is only a shadow of what it was. But, what is so bad about doing the recap thing? I still contend that we won WW II, fought the cold war, became the world's superpower, entered the computer revolution, etc, etc, etc and we did it all before there was ever a HOS recap in the system. I sure don't remember soup lines of poor truck drivers that were being poverty stricken because of only having a recap on the HOS to use. Y'all just need some perspective.

 

Seems that many have forgot this.

Will miss the use of multi in a slow week, but life goes on.

 

What's bad is when they triple that 7 and other violations the first year .
Not wearing a seatbelt has nothing to to with safety ? Tell that to the family of a driver that was ejected when he rolled his tanker in the median near here and landed in the left lane directly in front of a vehicle going 65 mph .
http://www.courierpress.com/photos/...erturned-semi-pennyrile/11633/#section_header

 

I'm not sure where you're going with this .. I thought there were less regs back in the 30's thru 70's ? As in -- there was no HOS recap because well -- there was no HOS?


At least that's what they always say about 'back in the day' .. You know, back in the day -- when you could "run 24/7/365 and blow thru the west at 140mph and the company paid all the fines" and "you could do 8 balls and shots right off the truck stop bars"


So the US of A won WWII and the cold war because there was less regulation? Or more?


Those eras you mentioned had jimmy Hoffa .. We've got OIDAwhatever .. That prolly had far more to due with keeping truck drivers out of soup lines than recaps, resets and whatever regulations -- or lack thereof.

 

Maybe safety of the individual driver, but that is not the issue. If one wants to drive like that, it is none of my business or the government's. The only thing that concerns me regarding safety is how the safety of OTHERS is affected. And seatbelts are not on the top of the list. Especially when government, both at the federal level and many states, could give a rip about a motorcyclist wearing a helmet or not, then seatbelts seem more like revenue enhancement for LE. While your assertion about the driver being thrown from a truck that rolled is interesting (seems like only he was really in jeopardy in that case), there are far more serious problems with motorcyclists not wearing proper head gear. This is not to promote helmets laws either.... it is to put things in perspective. The government does not give a rip about anyone's safety. They are in it strictly for control and money. They have no problem with a motorcyclist having their brains all over the wall of that underpass, or getting a young person blown up in the military in senseless excursions around the globe (don't try to comment against that... I put in 7 years in the military, part of which was being sniper bait for anyone who had a notion to take a shot at me), but God forbid you don't wear your seatbelt! That is tantamount to treason! And, by God, they are going to penalize you for not wearing it and put you in your place, and teach you not to put their revenue stream (you and the taxes you pay) in jeopardy. But it is ok to mandate that the snow on top of the trailer be cleaned off or you get a fine. So they have no problem if you fall over 13 feet while trying to comply with that one. Seat belt laws really seem lame when you put it in perspective.

 

Drive 8 hours, take a 30 min break, drive 3 hours.
Drive 3 hours, take a 30 min break, drive 8 hours.
Drive 2 hours, take a 30 min break, drive 8 hours, take a 30 min break, drive 1 hour.
Drive 5 hours, take a 30 min break, drive 6 hours.

So in other words, you cannot drive more than 8 hours without a 30 min break.

this is to look at that you have the full 11 to drive.

 

The regs you can use now are virtually identical to the regs that were IN PLACE since 1938. 8/70 and 7/60. The only difference is since 2003, it is a 11 hr driving rule with a 10 hour break as opposed to a 10 hr driving rule with an 8 hour break, and now a limited split sleeper provision. The 34 reset did not show up till 2003, and no one has to use the 34 reset. It is, and has always been, optional. That is the only major thing that is different between the "old" rules and the ones we have now. Basically, one can do what we did for decades... run and recap. That has nothing to do with what folks did running multiple log books and taking little pills. And "back in the day", like a large chunk of 70's and 80's..... nationwide speed limit was 55 mph. Sure, you could blow thru the west at 140 mph, but don't let Barney catch you doing it. That is still the same today. My truck will bust 100 mph without a sweat if I wanted it to. And like today..... the majority of truck drivers were NON UNION back then. The IBT and Teamsters, with Hoffa and company, just like his boy today, was mostly involved with LTL and local/regional stuff. Most interstate, long haul, OTR drivers were NOT union. A large chunk of Teamsters membership, in history, included folks that never sat behind a steering wheel in a truck. Including many police officers!! Sure, there are now random drug testing and other little goodies that the government has thrown in, but that has nothing to do with HOS. Don't confuse CSA, and all the other stuff with HOS. They have little to do with each other. Stay focused, class.

I guess my point went right over your head. The HOS regulations allow almost the same thing as they did 50 years ago. The only REAL difference that is MANDATORY is that the split sleeper is more limited than it was then, and now the 30 minute break thing coming at us in July. That is it! Everything else is basically the same regarding the HOS. Those of us that spent a lot of years under the "old rules" will just fall back into what we did for years, if we cannot pull off a reset under the new rules. Just run, recap, and run.

I realize you didn't experience all of that back then, based on the years you state as a driver. So your perspective is somewhat limited. Those of us that have more time under the "old rules" than we do the current rules will just shift gears in how we do things and go back to doing what worked before the reset stuff. The guys who only have experience with the HOS that included a reset provision will just have to learn what we already know.

 

of course i would love to see the accident rates for trucks runing that fema stuff with suspended hos rules......i would bet it was mostly o/o running it and i would also bet there was a lower accident rate