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The American Trucking Associations asked members of the committee negotiating on the highway bill to address important industry needs.
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Speakers support hours status quo
February 17, 2011
| by: Max Kvidera
Trucking industry executives and drivers speaking at a meeting to discuss proposed hours of service changes today, Feb. 17, urged the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to retain the current regulations.
In a listening session and webcast organized by FMCSA, representatives from carriers and trucking groups and owner-operators said proposed changes wouldn’t lead to improvements and would complicate requirements for companies and drivers alike.
Owner-operator Rusty Wade of MM American called in to say, “If you put these rules in the name of safety, you’re going to cut my income by at least one-sixth. I’m going to lose one load a week. My actual freight runs three to four loads a week, so I’m going to lose a quarter of my income.”
Don Osterberg, senior vice president of safety and security at Schneider National, said the proposed changes wouldn’t enhance safety. “It certainly won’t make it worse. I don’t think you can say it will improve safety either,” referring to FMCSA staff members at the listening session in the Washington, D.C. area.
Referring to impact of the proposals on business, Osterberg said productivity would drop 4.72 percent. Schneider drivers would get home 25 percent less under the proposal, he said. The average daily mileage would fall from 501.7 miles to 478. To compensate for that loss, the company would have to increase driver pay by $3,000 annually to offset the productivity decline, he said. “We will have to increase driver pay anyway [because of ongoing supply and demand] but that would be a component that would add cost to the supply chain,” he said.
On the restart provision, he said, “I don’t believe the restart proposal will have a significant negative impact on productivity. It will be a nuisance. The average restart break our fleet takes is 62 hours.”
Osterberg also made a pitch for an electronic onboard recorder mandate proposed by FMCSA on Jan. 31. “Let’s measure the compliant driver by the effects of the current hours of service rules, and if they need to be changed, change them then,” he said.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Todd Dills, Overdrive magazine. Overdrive magazine said: Drivers and owner-operators speak out on hours, largely in support of status quote, at FMCSA hours listening session: http://bit.ly/hXTxi5 [...]
i think the 34 hour restatr is plenty enough hours for a driver to regain his composure..but the two midnight to 6 am periods are ludicrous..why do they think those periods would accomplish?? if i close my curtains in my sleeper it is dark so dark in fact you cant see your hand in front of your eyes..absolutely no light gets in..so i can make it night time at noon..if i deliver at 10 am and get empty by noon and start my 34 hour reset by 10 pm the next day i am ready to roll but my logbook wouldn’t be ready till 6 am ..thats 8 hours longer than i need…the 48 hour restart is just out of the question,, too many hours off are not needed,,on a 34 hour restart/reset i can sleep for 14 hours (i would have to be really tired to sleep for that long), go inside and do laundry for 4 hours eat in the diner for 4 hours and go back to the truck and sleep for another 12.. thats a lot of sleep and i am not saying that most of us can even sleep for a full 10 hours..(unless we drove for a full 24),,(which is a no,no.) thats like LA to Shreveport ,la..that’ll make you hit the rack for 14.