So I've volunteered for the 34 Hr restart Study done by the FMCSA

How much do they pay! They need to be studying the 30mim break and the effects of that! Especially when the clocks get set back in winter and there's less daylight and folks go rushing to the truckstops by 4-5pm!

Good luck. Prove to them that 34 hours no matter when it starts or ends is enough time off for a restart!

 

I considered volunteering for the study, but I don't drive as much as I used to so it would not be a good fit for me. If they are controlling where you run and your intake of caffeine, then it is not a valid study. The results will be skewed. A true and unbiased study will involve no behavioral changes. If they want valid data, then there should be no changes in behavior from the norm. It does sound like they are setting this up to generate the results they want. I don't know any drivers who don't drink coffee.

 

Caffeine intake??? Seriously??? How about my situation in which I suffer from "cluster headaches" and have been told by my treating neurologist to drink as much caffeine as possible to reduce the cycles? I agree with what so many others have said; if they actually wanted to conduct an unbiased study, they would not be dictating how, when and where the studied driver operates. Seems like they anticipated an outcome, and now are stacking the cards to achieve the outcome they WANT to see, not the outcome that might be possible.

 

Because that is how scientific study design works. You create a study to answer one specific question. In order for the study to be valid, you must either control or account for every variable which could have an effect on the answer to that question.

So lets say we study 200 drivers. 100 of them run the old regs and 100 of them run the new and other than that, drivers do whatever they want however they want and none of it is looked at. On the surface of it, this would seem like the most valid study design. You just let drivers do what they do and half do the original 34 hour resets while the other half does the two 1am-5am/168hour rule resets. Seems fair enough right?

But then lets say that through the luck of the draw 50 of those 200 drivers happen to be people that don't have any caffeine in their diets. Lets also say that through the luck of the draw 45 of those no caffeine drivers end up in the original 34 hour reset group. If you don't control or account for caffeine intake, you end up with data shows the drivers in the 1am-5am group are more rested because more of the drivers in that group are hopped up on caffeine and thus have more energy. Still seem fair not to control for caffeine intake?

Valid study design is complex art and the finer points of it don't always make sense to those outside the industry.

 

i don't care what you say its not a valid and fair test. You want a valid and fair test ok, then allow you the driver while doing the study to run the way you run for a month. (let them track do what ever). then after a month of you running like you normally would then allow them to put controls in and compare the difference.

what you are doing is nothing more than allowing for the outcome of the test to come out the way they want it to end up being. for example....

I may drink 1 cup a coffee a day, and then again i go weeks without coffee, I may feel able to drive 8 hrs straight without taking a break til the last minute, or I may drive for about an hour an want to take a nap.

If you are being controlled then you are no more than a monkey test lab rodent, that just knows that if you follow the maze and you do it right you get the cheese and get to eat, and if you don't you just starve til you do.

You sir, are not me, You sir, don't run like me or any other driver that is on this forum, the one thing we all or most have in common is that we at least drive 8-10 hrs a day and shut it down, I know for me I do about 8hrs or so and I am done for the day as I don't need to bust my arse to make what is needed to get the bills paid.

On top of all this there is a big difference between a driver who only may have been on the road for 1 year vs someone who has been on the road for 14-25 years. (its called stamina, and being able to keep ones butt in the seat).

So, i guess I say good luck, as you are not doing any justice to the true drivers that have been doing this for years. again another lab rat running through a maze.

 

this is true

this is how a true scientific study is done

problem is, we are not guinea pigs, so even if they do the best type of testing, it will not work, because each of us are different

hence, the problem with any federally mandated, HOS

 

caffeine intake does not make a driver more rested. it masks being tired.

that the problem with a study, you can design the study to end up up with whatever result you want. the very fact of taking volunteers for this study, skews the result before it starts.

you could also study 100 non- caffeine drivers, 100 caffeine drivers, 100 under old rules, 100 under new rules and on and on.

and you would have to do each with controls and without controls. and then 100 people to interpret the findings and get 100 different conclusions

 

I have to agree with this point....

Drivers should be picked out of the blue, from the truckstops, and at random from different areas and different companies. (what if all the drivers who volunteer only run midwest or east coast? and not have one person who runs the california nightmare)

 

that's exactly what I mean, the guy who would volunteer for this to begin with would be a different animal to begin with, it would be off kilter from the start.