Hours of Service Rollercoaster

Once again, "safety" advocates have thrown a monkey wrench into truck driver hours of service rules. Unless the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration succeeds in stalling a court order, come Sept. 14: (1) truckers' driving time could be cut from 11 hours a day to 10, and (2) drivers' ability to restart the clock after 34 hours off duty could be eliminated.

The aftermath would likely be chaos in the nation's freight delivery system (see story, page 48).

Why did the court throw out these provisions? Is it because the rules resulted in rampant carnage on America's highways? Absolutely not. Safety numbers for 2006 show truck fatalities down 4.7 percent – the biggest drop in 14 years.

Is it because drivers have complained that they were driven too hard under the current regimen? Nope. The rules have been largely embraced by the driver community as making their lives easier.

Actually, FMCSA itself invited the challenge from Public Citizen, by violating the law that regulates the rulemaking process. It's the agency's responsibility to put together a foolproof set of rules.

But the real issue should be how to control drivers who push themselves – or are pushed by employers – to the point of exhaustion.

Most trucking companies do their best to follow work rules. But there are still fleets that intentionally force drivers past the legal limit. Of course those drivers can quit, but many don't. They prefer running hard and making money to sitting in a truckstop parking lot because they're out of hours, even though they're not tired.

In an earlier challenge of the rules, safety advocates succeeded in killing the split sleeper berth provision. If the intent was to force drivers to rest, they accomplished the exact opposite. That provision allowed drivers to rest for a few hours when they needed it, then continue on. Without it, a driver can continue to drive if he still has hours, regardless of his state of fatigue.

Driving a truck is tough and tiring enough. Forcing every driver into a box of when to drive and when to rest isn't the solution. There is no reasonable way to measure how much rest is enough; it varies by individual.

In reality, a driver with a good safety record can jump ship and have another job the next day. That should be a clue that drivers themselves are the real captains of their destiny in the decision to drive or sleep.

Trucks are safer today than they've ever been. They could be even safer, with cutting-edge technology (page 70).

If fleets weren't hampered in productivity with unworkable, impossible to enforce work rules, more of them could afford that technology.

Those who persist in protesting the rules are masters at swaying public and political opinion. It's no coincidence that any time the driver rules head for a court decision, the general media's coverage of truck driver fatigue dangers picks up. Public Citizen has a very aggressive and effective PR machine.

The current hours rules have proven to work better than any before them. It's time for FMCSA to make them airtight, and it's time for safety advocates to stop the nitpicking.

E-mail Deb Whistler at dwhistler@truckinginfo.com, or write PO Box W, Newport Beach, CA 92658.