New HOS....yep

If you have say 5 hours for a particular day that you happen to be running on recap and it is currently say 9:00am. Your delivery APPOINTMENT is for tomorrow at 0730. It is to a busy customer who is only open until 3:00pm. You have a 200 mile deadhead to go load in Middletown, OH at AK Steel. You arrive at AK and it is just an average day- meaning only about 10 trucks arriving at the same time you are. By the grace of God you are loaded and secured within 90 minutes. Consignee is 4 hours away. It is now 1:30pm. You have around 30 minutes to drive in that direction for a parking spot to shut down. You take a 10 hour break and lets say you get more hours available for this next day, OK? Fine. You can make it to customer for your delivery appointment, but your reload appointment is at AK Butler, PA. 140 miles away and takes 4 hours. By now you are out of hours again, with a 8.5 hour drive to consignee the following day, but wait, they are only open until 3....Uh OH. SO that load can't be delivered TOMORROW rather the following day Looks like you have gotten 2 loads done in 4 days. Only 1 more day to go, and you are sitting at 2 loads with around 700-800 paid miles. Looks like a fast lane right to the poor house to me.

 

I am up against my 14 hour clock EVERY DAY. Period. I never have a problem with the 11. I average 5-7 loads each week. (That also means 4-6 UNLOADS each week).

 

[TABLE="class: TableFMCSA1, align: center"]
[TR]
[TH="class: LeftTableHeadFMCSA, width: 15%, align: center"]PROVISION[/TH]
[TH="class: LeftTableHeadFMCSA, width: 35%, align: center"]PRIOR RULE[/TH]
[TH="class: LeftTableHeadFMCSA, width: 47%, align: center"]FINAL RULE - COMPLIANCE DATE JULY 1, 2013[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH="class: MiddleTDFMCSA1"] Limitations on minimum "34-hour restarts" [/TH]
[TD="class: MiddleTDFMCSA1"] None [/TD]
[TD="class: MiddleTDFMCSA1"] (1) Must include two periods from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., home terminal time.
(2) May only be used once per week, 168 hours, measured from the beginning of the previous restart.
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/topics/hos/index.htm

 

I only have two major problems with the new regs:

1. This first one is very small, but it's gonna be hard to get a 30 minute break in somewhere when driving in the middle of the night, which I do quite often. During the day it's no problem at all, I usually stop for 30 - 45 mins to eat lunch anyways, unless I'm too tight on time. But in the middle of the night, good luck finding a place to park, even for 30 mins, unless I just sit at the fuel pump, which I'm willing to bet a lot of drivers will start doing even during the daytime, which will make things oh so nice at the truck stops. (And for anyone who may think otherwise, not running at night is not an option in TCD most of the time.)

2. My main issues are with the changes to the 34. I find myself running on recap quite often, since I stay out 3 - 4 weeks at a time. So here's an example of why this will become an issue. I am sitting in Broken Bow, OK right now. My pickup window at Tyson was between 1200 and 1600. Once I got there, I checked in and was told that they do not have enough product to complete the load, and they wouldn't start production until 2300 tonight, so the load likely won't be ready until 0400 tomorrow morning or later. I'm not losing any hours by sitting YET. But if I'm running on recap 8 days from now, guess what? I regain very few or possibly no hours for that day, meaning I have to stop, and likely lose whatever load I'm on at the time. And to top that off, who knows how long a restart will actually take, since it has to include two periods between 1am and 5am.

I don't care about the 30 minute break really. There are lots of other jobs that require mandatory break periods during the work shift. But they should have left he #### 34 hour restart alone. Just because you take more than one in a week doesn't mean it's any lest restful.

And I think people have a right to be upset. Steve Williams himself told Congress in that hearing that these changes are going to cause significant problems with getting his drivers home on the weekends (for those that go home every weekend). I don't fall into that category, but I could see those that do being very upset at suddenly missing every other weekend because they don't have the hours to get home.

I'm 100% in support of safer roads, but this is nothing but over-regulation designed to fool the general public into believing that something is actually being done to make the roads safer. Hell, Congress chewed Ferro out right there in front of everyone because she implemented this rule without completing the field study that is required by MAP-21.

I don't really care for the analogy about "getting our panties in a bunch." I think we have a right to complain when our elected officials and their appointees are creating rules and regulations that accomplish nothing more than costing the general public time and money.

I wouldn't mind a 5 day workweek myself, but not if it cuts 1,000 miles off of my paycheck. As much as I love my job, I'm here to make money, and if the money stops, what's the point?

 

The Fed giveth, the Fed taketh away. Prior to 2003 there was no such thing as a restart, so it could be worse. The challenge of juggling the 14-hr duty clock along with an 11-hr driving clock just got a bit more complicated by the addition of an 8-hr break clock, and the 7-day restart fence. The required 30-min break, at a minimum, will take a bite out of the 14-hour clock and give us less to work with on days when we need to get after it. Likewise, we'll have to be smarter playing the restart card, as there won't be another for seven days.

The new rules aren't a deal killer, but they definitely ratchet up the driver hassle factor by adding the occasional mandatory 10-hour break to the longer trips and forced 34-hr restarts away from the house. Hard to argue against Maverick's strategy of playing smart within the rules while the Feds figure out what they're going to do.

In the meantime: C'mon US Court of Appeals

 

There is no such thing as a forced restart from the new rules.

 

I think he means he'll be forced to rest his hours away from home, instead of doing it at home like they normally do.

 

I should have used quotes ("forced")

Out of hours on your 70 where you don't pick up enough in the next day.