70 hour rule is dangerous!!!!!!!!!!

You're absolutely right. The DOT regulations force drivers to sit around truckstops at 2 in the afternoon when they're wide awake to wait for their hours to catch up, then drive at 1 in the morning when their circadian rythems are telling them to go to sleep. I can't think of a more dangerous system. It would be better to require 10 hours off every day-7 days a week ,11 hours driving, and do what you want the rest of the time.

 

The way I look at it, the system would make more sense if they would just say ok, you can work 10 hours a day. You must have 1 day off every 8 days.
If they did this across the board it would = what they really want now. As it is now, in a perfect situation you can run 11, sleep 10, run 11 sleep 10, ect. with a reset every week, and work allot more than 70 hours a week.
Doing this however, there is no rhythm and you are basically killing yourself.
There are some drivers out there that do this, legally. Many that just do it on paper, and actually never get those resets, but it looks good on there logs, and they are averaging over 4000 miles every week.
It is possible to do this, but all of us know it is very unlikely.

The biggest issue of a straight number of hours a day rule would be parking. Just about everyone would drive the same hours, unless they had a p/u or delivery that made it so they had to run at a different shift time. But if every trucker on the road followed something like this, 100%, all the time. The rates would go up allot. Simply because there would not be nearly enough trucks to get the job done on the road. There will always be those drivers that will not follow the rules though. These "super Truckers" will always be out there trying to get those 4k mile weeks, every week, and the rates will not go up substantially for several more years because of this.

My company is in the middle of raising there rates allot right now, so I am guessing most of the large carriers are doing the same thing. I am looking forward to seeing how this will affect rates over the next 6 months.

Drive legal, stay safe..

 

So overall do ya'll think the old rules were safer or just better for the drivers natural rhythms? Both?

 

Socy, the new rules are a vast improvement over the old. Especially for those of us who are no longer part of the irregular route OTR meat grinder. I run 3000-3500 every week, spend the weekend home, and rarely fight with the logbook. I don't do the 'get up at midnight and go ' garbage anymore. The old rules wouldn't allow me to be home and turn miles (well, not legally anyway! ) as you wouldn't have hours til Monday night after a busy previous week. Yes, the non-stop 14 is a pita, but reset is a worthy trade. The situation PHP describes above is what we all dealt with all of the time! Shoot, the new HOS probably saves ten times the paper Wiener's paperless does.

 

Thanks Hammer.

I've just heard criticisms of the new rules and the "clock starting" at the beginning of the day. One driver explained that if there was a large traffic jam as they were entering a city, then they could do both themselves and the traffic problem a favor by pulling over for a few hours and resuming their driving in a few hours. This situation is not available to drivers under the new rules, correct?

 

My husband just went through that same thing a few weeks ago and he was so mad. I know it is irritating. Actually it was the first time it happened to him, but I know it is a pain in the rump.

 

No, 70 in 8 days! Add last 7 day's hours, subtract from 70. Voila! That's what ya can worg today.

And, yes Socy, limited flexibility sucks but the reset is worth it.

 

I do like that idea! Using the system to your advantage, while allowing some flexibility for unforseen circumstances (traffic/breakdown). It gets your time in without beating yourself to death and keeps you rested for the next day. Allows you to stay productive as long as you want.

I really don't understand why some drivers actually try to get their 70 as quickly as possible, and then complain about the situations they put themselves in (no time left to drive, late delivery, reset away from home, etc.). They're killing themselves physically and mentally for nothing, it seems to me!