HOS regs limit restart provision; mandate breaks

And another one. How long till the next one?

 

I bet this will get appealed. However, the new revision is NOT the end of the world. Remember, you only have to show the last 7 days plus the day your on. There would be no way to prove your last restart if your creative.

 

itll be overturned.

 

If you aren't already an OOIDA member, now might be a good time to sing up.

Seeing as how these aren't scheduled to go into effect until June 30, 2013...I highly doubt they will EVER take effect. Unless Obama is re-elected, the new administration would have 6 months in office before this BS takes effect....plenty of time to scrap it. Not only that, but the Congress has already started taking steps to reign in the regulatory BS this current administration is attempting to enact....and with the HOS being near the top of the list of the most expensive new regulations, it has their attention. Supposedly, it is one of 7 new proposed regulations that will each cost more than $1 Billion.

 

i hope so...

 

Or, you could do like was done from 1938 to 2003, just run the recap and pick up hours. The reset is a recent phenomenon. I didn't get a reset this last weekend, and am running fine this week on pickup hours on the recap. Obviously it wouldn't work for everyone in every situation. But then, there has never been a regulation that worked for everyone in every situation. I guess that some will have to modify their operation a little to make things work well. I did that over a decade ago when I saw this stuff coming down the pike. That is why I predominately operate in a 600-700 mile radius of my home turf. Works well in the upper midwest, not so much for some areas of the country.

 

work 9.5 hrs a day and you'll work til you drop dead without ever running out of hours.

 

I dont know about the rest of you drivers. I for one am ready to put a complete stop to this. If only we could get ALL drivers on the same page. I truly wish that "We The People" could unite. I for one am tired of adjusting to these little wanna-be kings and over bareing regulations. The people who keep up with this industry, have said that wrecks that involve big trucks are at an all time low. Yet we continue to get more oppression.....

 

9.5 hours x 8 consecutive days = 76 hours....you're 6 hours over and in violation.

I think 8.75 was the number you were looking for....which would be fine for an OTR driver. However, the run I'm on right now if everything goes absolutely perfectly, takes 12.5 hours to complete. I don't have the option to only work 8.75 hours...not on this run.

Where these new rules start to get on my nerves, however, is the mandated 30 minute break. My 12.5 hour day just grew to a 13 hour day...and that's if there are ZERO delays.

Now keep in mind, I have over an hour to drive just to arrive at the shipper. By the time I get loaded and hit the road, I'll have to shut down for 30 minutes before I am able to arrive at the receiver. A driver who parks his truck closer to the shipper won't have to stop for 30 minutes until after he arrives at the receiver and delivers...which means he's going to get there before I do....meaning I'm going to have to wait for him to pump the product out of his trailer before I can hook up to unload my trailer. There's an hour or more (depending upon whether or not the guy knows what he's doing) that I'll have to wait....so now that 13 hour day is turning into a 14+ hour day...and that's IF there are no other delays.

So this run that I've been able to run 100% legal probably 95% of the time under the current rules....and could have been run 100% legal 100% of the time under the old 8/10/15 rules....will now have me down around running 100% legal maybe 5 or 10% of the time. Same driver. Same working hours. Same equipment. The only thing that has changed is the rules. Am I now suddenly less "safe" just because some bureaucrat who has never seen the inside of a truck thinks he knows how to do my job better than I do?

Now, the "reset" option. I haven't run a recap in years, because I don't have to. I work 5 days per week. If I miss a day during the week, I use Saturday to make it up. However, once these new rules go into effect that will no longer be an option. My day starts before 5 AM, so if I work on Saturday, I will not have 2 periods of 1 AM to 5 AM before I have to roll out Monday morning. If I don't reset, I won't pick up the hours I worked last week Monday until Tuesday this week...so I lose a day this week by not starting until Tuesday. I like the reset option...just not with the 2 periods between set hours. 34 hours is 34 hours, and any period of 34 hours ought to be sufficient, as it is your regular 10 hour break in addition to a full 24 hour day....and it shouldn't matter when that break is taken. A person who works nights or early mornings doesn't need the same hours off as a person who works afternoons or evenings. EVERY person is different, and a "one-size-fits-all" rule such as requiring 2 periods of 1AM to 5AM in order to take advantage of the restart option isn't going to work for a lot of people.

I'm just glad my truck will be paid off long before this BS is scheduled to take effect...won't have to run as hard without that truck note hanging over my head, and if it gets too bad, I'll just park it and get a real job.