HOS Final Rule....

Hours of Service Update

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) effective December 27, 2007. This interim rule maintains the current 11-hour driving limit within a 14-hour duty period and the 34-hour restart provision.

The FMCSA feels this IFR is necessary to prevent disruption to the industry, enforcement, and compliance once the stay expires. The FMCSA will be accepting public comment on the interim rule on or before February 15, 2008.

For information on how to submit a comment, please review the Federal Register at: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-24238.pdf.

 

Here's a link to submit your comments:

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=090000648037b154


Here's what I wrote them:

Please do something to make these hours realistic for those of us who have to work by them. In my opinion, the current set up and the new proposal are a burden to drivers. They are confusing, and do not allow us to do our jobs properly, or safely. Why are we required to have 10 hours rest when most of the working public can work with 8 hours or less? By the time I have my 8 hours off, I am fresh and ready to go. The extra two hours is unnecessary, and causes me to twiddle my thumbs!

The current set up of 8/2 split sleeper berths is ridiculous, as well. It's confusing, and does nothing to help a driver. I would propose changing the 10 consecutive hours to 8, and the split sleeper berth to two periods of 5 to equal 10. Once the time off is completed, then a fresh day (14) would "restart." With the split sleeper, the first 5 hours would allow 5 more working hours, as long as they did not exceed the 11 driving. It would require having at least 5 more hours off to reset. Keep the 11 hours driving. Another possible provision would be to allow for a 1 or 2 hour break to "stop the clock" for meals.

The current law forces drivers to cram as much driving and work into a day that they can without meal breaks, or even to "stretch the legs." We're all so afraid of running into problems within the 14 hours, that we push the current law to the limits. With trying to make the roads "safer," you now have thousands of drivers with unhealthy habits of not eating, and staying sedentary for longer periods of time.

Add a provision for all drivers to have access to a 16 hour exception once a week. There are many times when we are stuck in circumstances beyond our control for well over an hour. Ask any professional driver who runs through Atlanta how often that happens.

 

LOL send a comment and it probably will just go-to a spam mailbox and be deleted... They could care less what you have to say... It comes down to what makes large corporations more money....

 

This is what amazes me about the trucking industry as a whole. You have no idea how much power we could have as a group. Instead of making comments like this one, try to do something about the conditions that we are forced to work in. Join OOIDA, have your congressmen and senators e-mails, register to vote... Get involved! When a large group of voters speaks up, it's awful hard for them not to listen.

I'm tired of hearing my fellow drivers whine and complain about everything and then do nothing. In the age of the internet, it's just as easy to shoot off an e-mail to an "official" as it is to shoot off on a trucking forum.