The biggest change in truck driver hours of service rules in more than 60 years comes down to this: two more hours of rest and one more hour of driving in each duty cycle.

The rules, released last week by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, do not contain two controversial features that were in an earlier proposal – they do not require onboard electronic devices to track driver hours, and they do not vary from one type of operation to another.
They do significantly change the current practice of 10 hours of driving followed by eight hours of rest. These rules cap a driver’s workday at 14 hours, 11 of which may be spent driving. The mandated rest break is 10 hours. While there is no formal 24-hour cycle, this does set up a 24-hour day, which scientists say is important for controlling fatigue – particularly in comparison to the current 18-hour day.
The new rules retain the current limitation on weekly hours: either 60 hours in seven days or 70 hours in eight days. But they add a weekend provision that allows a driver to restart his week after taking at least 34 hours off.
And there is an exemption for local freight drivers. They may extend the 14-hour duty period by two hours if they are released from duty at their normal location for the five previous duty tours, and they return to that location and are released within 16 hours. That's provided they have not used this exemption for the previous seven days, unless they took the 34-hour break in that time.
This rule is a vast simplification of the rule the agency proposed three years ago. That proposal called for a 14-hour day with two hours of mandatory rest breaks, with a weekly break that consisted of two consecutive nights including the midnight to 6 a.m. period. It also broke the industry into five different types of operations and proposed different rules for each type. And, longhaul and regional drivers were supposed to keep track of their hours with electronic onboard recorders.
The onboard recorder issue is not dead, however. The safety agency is launching a research effort to evaluate alternative technologies for tracking hours.
The proposed rule generated more than 50,000 comments, most of them negative. In preparing the final rule, the agency examined three alternatives that seemed to encompass the scope of opinion: an industry plan put forth by American Trucking Assns., a safety advocates’ plan proposed by Parents Against Tired Truckers, and a middle-of-the-road plan drafted by the agency staff. The final rule is closest to the middle plan.
The current rules will remain in effect while the agency prepares for the new rules, a process that is expected to take until Jan. 4, 2004. It would not be a great surprise, however, if the rules wind up in court.