Update on court-mandated Hours of Service change
Posted on July 30, 2007
Filed Under HORROR STORIES, HOURS OF SERVICE
On July 24, 2007, a US Court of Appeals vacated the FMCSA’s 11 hour rule, and the 34 hour reset provision of the 70 hour rule. In the interim, the FMCSA has issued the following guidance on what to do now:
“We are analyzing the decision issued today to understand the court’s findings as well as determine the agency’s next steps to prevent driver fatigue, ensure safe and efficient motor carrier operations and save lives. This decision does not go into effect until September 14, unless the court orders otherwise.”
There, doesn’t that make you feel better? Well, if nothing else, it clarifies that nothing changes until September 14, 2007. What will the rules be on September 15? No one knows exactly, but there is a very good chance it will be a 1) 10 hour driving limit, with a mandated 10 hour break, 2) the current 14 hour rule, and 3) no more than 70 hours on-duty in any consecutive 8 day period, no reset provision.
The over-the-road truckers realize that this will be a huge setback, in that they will not be able to work as many hours, or drive as many miles. It will dramatically effect the non-trucking operations as well. Whereas many of the local, non-trucking type companies never drive 11 or even 10 hours in one day, the elimination of the 70 hour reset provision will hurt everyone. What this means is that you must track how many hours your drivers get every day. On any given day, that driver cannot have more than 70 hours on-duty in the past seven days, plus today.
For example, let’s say a construction company normally works Monday through Friday, with a few hours on Saturday. A driver (who primarily works on jobsites operating equipment, but still drives a few hours each day) works 12 hours a day Monday – Friday. He works another 10 hours on Saturday. He is off on Sunday. Under the current rules, this driver may work a normal shift on the following Monday, with no restrictions, as he obtained 34 consecutive hours off-duty from when he stopped work on Saturday afternoon to early Monday morning. This resets his running 70 hour clock to zero. HOWEVER, under the rules without a reset provision, this driver will be unable to drive on Monday. Without a reset provision, you must always keep a running total of how many on-duty hours a driver has in the previous 7 days. In this case, he has 70 hours on duty in the previous 7 days. He has no hours to drive on Monday, or he will be over hours.
Under the current rules, most local, non-trucking companies, such as construction, landscapers, pavers, or local delivery companies never have to worry about 70 hour violations, as their drivers always get the weekends off, and they do not operate 70 hours during the week. That will all change with the elimination of the reset provision.
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Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Agent with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Email him at eric@arnoldsafety.com.
Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.
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13 Responses to “Update on court-mandated Hours of Service change”
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Just go to 12hr on and 12hr off
Blake Dunnington
No one is sure what the court will allow, but they almost certainly will not allow 12 consecutive hours of driving. Heck, at present, they do not want to allow 11 hours of driving.
If the 34 reset is in fact withdrawn. The government will be doing a great DIS-SERVICE to the trucking industry and the overall economy. How come these people don not see it that way. How can I reach the people that are making these decisions to plead with them?
The problem is not with the driving hours, IT IS WITH THE SHIPPERS AND RECEVERS !!! If they would get you loaded and unloaded in A timely manner things would be much less stressful on the drivers. When you just awoke from 10 or 12 hours of sleep in the lot where you are picking up your load. Then you wait 8 to 10 hours to get loaded and they want you to be at your next stop 12 hours away in 10 hours time, there’s a problem. I could go on all day with stories about shippers and recievers jerking around drivers for 10 to 15 hours but what gets my goat most is the lumping situation in the trucking industry. They want you to pay to have their product unloaded. How did we get to this point! I would love to charge Wall-Mart lumping fees for seperating my groceries into the cabinets, freezer and refridgerator. Or how about sending the U.S. Mail a lumping fee for seperating the bills from the junk mail. MONEY TRUMPS EVERYTHING!!! Safty is not the issue in the laws or the D.O.T. Dept. It’s all about how to gain more revenue.
Law makers can play with the hours of service all they want that will not help the safty issue.If this were true they would be on the medical field like stink on a skunk. But you can’t write a doctor a ticket for pulling a 24 hour shift like you can write a $300.00 ticket to a trucker for driving 12 hours stright, plus whatever else they can find wrong with the truck. I can get in my car and drive 19 hours stright to florida for vacation no problem. I got out of trucking because of the bull-s—! I am a contractor working 18 hours a day and know people who work in a factory for 16 to 18 hours a day with no problems. With the U.S.D.O.T MONEY TRUMPS EVERYTHING!!!
Rey: You are 100% right, losing the 34 hour reset will be a shame, as it makes sense. FMCSA has plenty of data showing that if you get two full sleep cycles, (ie 34 hours off-duty), it basically erases anything sleep deficit you had prior to that. At this point, the people to get to are your Senators and Congressman. You can’t argue with the judges sitting on the US Court of Appeals: they’re not elected.
Mark: You’re right, the faster you get unloaded or loaded, the more hours you have available. If the shipper or receiver jerks you around, then you have to try to get compensated for the time you’re losing. That’s probably easier for the Swifts and JB Hunts, rather than Joe Blow Owner-Operator.
On the doctor thing, don’t give the government any ideas. It wouldn’t surprise me at some point if a doctor made a big mistake on an important patient like a Senator or somebody because he just pulled an 18 hour shift…. BOOM, we now have medical hours of service rules. And then my health insurance can go up 30% every year instead of the 15% it does now.
cyrbabies…hahahahahahaha
Erick,
How are the hours calculated for a local p&d that is constantly in and out of his truck all day. And also how is it calculated for say a dock worker that works a few hours on the dock then goes out for deliveries.
Thanks
hawk? what is “cyrbabies”. skool ekil ouy tis hindbe a ksed dna hsup a cilpen.
There are 3 rules you must comply with: the 11 hour rule, the 14 hour rule, and the 70 hour rule.
The 11 hour rule states you may not drive more than 11 hours after being off duty for 10 hours. In your scenario, this would not come into play, as he is only accumulating a few hours driving, and is spending most of his time loading and unloading the truck. The rule you may have trouble with is the 14 hour rule. A driver may not have more than 14 hours on-duty after having a 10 hour off-duty break. All time spent during the day, whether it be loading, unloading, working on the dock, eating lunch, taking a nap (less than 8 hours), fueling the truck, etc. counts as part of your 14 hours. So, if you start your shift at 6am, you will be out of hours by 8pm, even though you spent only a few hours driving, because your 14th hour is 8 pm. Hope this helps.
Since the deregulation the trucking industry has become a target, government vs owner operator. we live in a free country where we have been targetted. we get it from local state and federal government agencies. This including the court system, where a judge isnt fair and impartial but rules on the testimony of an officer and not the facts. In example a driver was convicted of failure to maintain a log for the day when the driver was a local driver and inside his operating radius but was dispatched outside his radius.
Judgement: aganst the the driver for he may have been with-in at the time of ticket, he was going to go outside of his radius there-fore guilty.
Another instance is where a DOT officer states that he observerd a truck going 72 miles an hour at a speed drop from 65 to 55 and stops the truck 10 miles up the highway 7 minutes later stating that it was the only truck he had seen on the road. problem with his testimony is that he’s stated on the record that he had changed the date time stamp in the exec file to reflect what he thought was the correct time. Why? it is automatic. The question is how fast was the truck going to have traveled that 10 miles in 7 minutes and how fast was that DOT official traveling when he had to travel another mile south to make a u-turn and apprehend the truck. Found guilty on officers testimony. Problem with this is the truck came on the highway from fueling at an exit in the 10 mile stretch.
Try this one. Local officer stops truck traveling 55 in a 35 after observing a car and truck traveling at less than 35 in a 45 mile an hour stretch, lanes duble truck sped up to pass car car sped up to prevent until officer was spoted by car in which car slowed enough to let truck by. officer pulls out almost hits car trying to get around him and pulls truck over. cites truck for traveling 55 in 30 then calls DOT. Dot arrives does level three and other than inocent mistakes finds nothing to cite problem with this one is it took 2 1/2 hours before truck was released thus loosing the next load.
How about a standard set of rules thru-out the country and and a fair and impartial judicial system that doesnt rule on officials testimony but the facts.
I truly believe in the safety system for reasons of rediculus fuel prices forcing the truckers to cut corners and the biggest one is safety however i do not believe in the larger companies for the majority of the drivers are a number and have little to no experience.
The back bone of this industry is the owner operators that operate at little to no profit.
want to correct it bring down the price of fuel, force the shippers and receivers to do their job in a timely maner, eliminate appointments, hold shippers and receivers accountable for over weights and timely shipments, standardize all the (FICA,IRP’s, Single state regulations and Certifiactions, and any other additional requirement.) and truly standardize the FMC rules and regulations and hold the local and state to these rules as well.
My eyes are glazed over and my brain is melting from all of this. Lets have the trucking industry shut down for just one day EVERYBODY and see how the government regulates that!
I’m with you Glenn. I think what had we’ve been operating under for the past 2-3 years has been a happy medium as far as rules go. Losing the 34 hour reset is too restrictive. Maybe sanity will be restored in this process somewhere, although I doubt it.