If you wrote the HOS, how would you do it?

14 hours to do whatever, with the ability to stop and restart, so no fixed time from start. minimum of 8 hours continuous.. once an 8 hour period is completed, 14 hours available again ( not withing a 24 hour window ). 6 days straight work available, then minimum 34 off. 6 days out 34 hours minimum off.
Similar to our rules here in AU, but i would like to see these instead of the new regs..

 

WELL U KNOW THE HOS THING ~I THINK IT SHOULD BE UP TO THE DRIVERS ~THEN AGAIN MAYBE NOT ~EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT ~SOME GUYS CAN DRIVE 1000 MILE A DAY AND SLEEP 4 HOURS AND DRIVE ANOTHER 1000 MILES AND SOME GUYS CAN DRIVE 100 MILE AND NEED TO SLEEP FOR 8 HOURS LOL~IF I WAS WRITING THE HOURS OF SERVICE BECAUSE IM AN OWNER OP ID MAKE IT TO WHERE YOU HAD TO HAVE 10 HOURS OFF IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD I PERSONALLY LIKE IT THAT WAY WHERE U COULD DRIVE FOR 5 AND TAKE 5 AND DRIVE FOR ANOTHER FIVE ~THE OLD WAY BUT IT REALLY DONT MATTER IF U RUN LOOSE LEAF LOGGS U CAN JUST WRITE UR OWN HOURS OF SERVICE ANYWAY "JUST TEAR THE PAGE OUT AND START OVER ~THIS IS WHAT YA HAVE TO DO NOW DAYS TO MAKE ANY MONEY~

 

Hours of Service protect drivers from their employers and shippers. Nobody wants to return to the way it was before Hours of Service were established in the 1930s. Also, if drivers had no numerical limits on their activities, the government would soon invent fatigue testing. If your eyelids are involuntarily drooping, park it for eight hours even if you just left the house.

 

I don't have a quick fix. However, I have some observations:

First: Circadian rhythms work on a 24-hour cycle. For example, I am usually very tired at 2AM. Even if I sat around doing nothing all day. You can train your body to be more alert at night, but the tradeoff is that you will be tired during the day -- again, even if you sat around all night watching TV. How do we accommodate this in HoS?

Second: The 14-hour clock needs a pause button. The previous example of 5 hours at the loading dock was excellent

Third: A rest period needs to be long enough to be meaningful. E.g. four two-hour naps do not equal eight hours of solid sleep. (The new HoS did attempt to address this)

Fourth: I like the idea of a "reset" for your weekly hours, but I think 34 hours is excessive. Even if you sleep, do laundry, vacuum the truck (wait, wouldn't that be "on-duty, not driving"?), eat, watch TV, read email and sleep again, 34 hours is a long time to sit around doing nothing. Quite a bit more than is necessary for resting. I think 24 hours would be adequate here.

Some people have objected to that last point in the past, pointing out that truckers are entitled to a weekend like everyone else. I agree, but HoS regulations aren't there to provide drivers with vacation time. They're there for safety. Your time off is a matter between you, your employer and possibly other relevant legislation (not HoS).

Anyway, just some observations.

 

STOP PAYING DRIVERS BY THE MILE! Pay us a respectable wage by the hour for EVERY HOUR we spend on duty. And we wont need HOS regs, we would go to bed when we are tired, fix our trucks when they needed it, take care of our hygeine, in general, have a better attitude b/c we would be making money for everything we have to do, instead of just 1/2 of what we do!

 

I would leave them the way they are now...EXCEPT! I would allow you to stop the 14 hour clock for a rest period during the day if needed or for loading delays if you are not responsible for loading, In other words if you can sleep while being loaded.

I ran for many years under the old HOS rules and the only thing I ever thought needed changing was if we could have a reset like the 34 hour reset that we have now.

 

I might have a little different perspective to offer working for an LTL company. The current rules are much more driver friendly than the old ones at least at Con-way. I started here a few weeks before the HOS changed - when they changed, the company adjusted its operation and runs to fit the HOS rather than us adjusting our HOS to fit runs.

An LTL operation is around the clock and involves much more than driving - mainly a ton of dock-work. Before the 14 hour clock was instituted, they could call you in to work the dock in the morning, send you home for 6 hours, then call you back to work the afternoon dock and take a short line-haul run. By time that was all over, it was not uncommon to work 18 hours in a 24 hour period. It was all completely legal but it stunk. When the HOS changed, they had to give you 10 full hours off if they wanted you to drive - much more driver friendly and safer. The additional hour of drive time also allowed for some new longer runs that were not possible with only 10 hours drive time available. I'm on a set run and schedule now but it's still nice that I must have 10 hours off before I can punch on the clock to hook my set. Even with a set line-haul run, it used to be, come in on your 8 and help us on the dock for a while - sorry, can't do it now.

If I were to make any changes to the HOS, it would be along the lines of having a few different provisions for each segment of the industry. In other words, since we are home everyday, we have the 16 hour exception that we can use once per week. Maybe once per week an OTR driver should be able to stop the 14 hour clock for up to 4 hours legally - or extend it to a 15 hour clock daily.

The current HOS work great here but trucking has so many types of operations it's impossible to cover all of them with one set of rules. I guess the change I would like to see is rules tailored for different segments of the industry.

 

First thing would be to keep it at less than 1500 pages, if at all possible.
Second thing would be to hire some overpriced advisors, that have no trucking industry experience what-so-ever.
Third thing-WAIT, they've already done it for me !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I wonder what expectations the companies would place on their drivers without designated breaks.