Congressman addresses HOS flexibility

How flexibility of the split berth expansion would help me at times:
1. Under a FCFS load 0600 to 1400 delivery for L.A. basin on Tuesday morning.
2. Received a call from a good broker on a great paying load (that I REALLY want) that needs my trailer by 0800 in same area as my delivery, 3 miles away. Broker indicates the shipper needs roughly 3 hrs to floor load the trailer.
3. I can make it to the top of the Grapevine at 2200, 2 hrs from delivery with 6 hrs left on my drive drive line and 8 on my 14.
4. I could drive to L.A. and stop at midnight. However, there is no place to park near my delivery and the current 8/2 split berth provision would do me no good as far as picking up that great paying load at 0800.
5. However, with a 6/4 split berth I could stop on the grapevine at 2200 where there's plenty of parking, leave around 0400, miss the rush hour traffic, arrive at consignee at 0600 get unloaded by 0730 and still have time to make it to the 0800. Put the trailer in the dock, unhook and take a 4 hrs sleeper berth break and get plenty of time back to get out of L.A. before rush hour sets in the other way.

There are many other real life examples I could use. However, you get my drift

 

This type of flexibility scenario could be used for anything from weather to fatalities on the freeway that backs traffic up for hours.

The benefit of technology these days is that we have the capacity to react and to plan in real time with some flexibility.

Which is why the way the current HOS is structured is archaic and outdated in the way it's applied and enforced. What works for you, may not necessarily work for me. One size truly does not fit all.

That is how I interpret what Babin is asking for and I applaud him for it. Calling him a big company stooge for Stevens Transport is not useful in my opinion.

A few tweaks in the way things are currently done could go a long way in balancing things out a bit. However, if one's only argument is to decry the gubmint's interference in our lives, "just because", without being able to present a cogent argument, then things will probably remain the way are.