New HOS for Teams

The newest incantation of the Hours of Service took effect on Oct 1st. You might say, "Now that the HOS affects you, NOW is when you care about the changes!!!" Not true. Every time the HOS has it affected us but we were able to adapt and continue trucking. This article is from Canada’s trucking magazine, Canadian drivers must switch to USA hours of service when they cross the border and even though previous days hours driven in Canada aren’t subject to USA hours, the total number of hours driven still affects the USA 70 hour rules.

Today’s Trucking: The Online Business Resource for Canada’s Trucking Industry.For solo drivers, The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s amendment taking away flexibility in the sleeper-birth option is causing a few scheduling conflicts, and perhaps rearranging a few sleep patterns, but it’s some team drivers that may have to overhaul their routines. Can they cope with 10 hours in the bunk of a moving truck? Or 10 straight hours at the wheel afterwards?

We were fine driving 5 on or 5 off or any other combination. And as I mentioned before, I used to drive straight through the day anyway. Start early so I could stop early to find a parking place.

But for teams that have traditionally run five hours on, five off –
like those with Challenger Motor Freight — the change does pose some
challenges.The rules, which took effect in October, say 10
hours off are required before you can drive again, but they will let
you split the time into two blocks. It used to be that drivers could
split their sleeper time into two short blocks — say five and five –
as long one period was at least two hours long. Now there’s no wiggle
room, as one block in the sleeper has to be at least eight consecutive
hours.

"It’s definitely going to affect team drivers with their driving
patterns," says John Ahearn, Challenger’s operations supervisor. "These
guys are used to 5/5 and with the new rules it’s going to be either 8/2
or 10/10. We’re getting feedback from the teams that it could be almost
unsafe because they’re not used to driving a straight 10 hours. These
guys have driven team for a number of years and have gotten used to
5/5."

For me and a lot of drivers, it’s tough to sleep in a moving truck, even Interstates aren’t exactly very smooth. Taking a nap is about as good as it gets, drive a little, sleep a little and catch up in-between loads. We don’t team every single trip, but there have been more and more. Not having "wiggle room" means, even if I’m tired and have been driving for six or seven hours, I can’t stop even though there is a rested driver sitting right next to me. In reality, I’m going to drive safe, but now it’s getting tougher to get creative and remain legal, at least to appear legal. Since a lot of team loads absolutely, have to be there, as soon as possible and the shipper is paying a bunch more money to get it there quicker, kind of loads, it’s going to remain tough

"I’m sure most will give it a try, but if they find that they’re not
getting the proper sleep or they don’t feel safe driving the eight to
10 hour stretches, then yes, I could see teams breaking up and guys
just running single."

Or getting creative, which will put the remaining teams in bigger demand. And there’s no way me and Cindy are driving seperate trucks, we could start turning down team loads, but lately we just ask for more money, which seperates the good freight from the bad.

Whether drivers, both single and team, adjust to the new rules remains
to be seen as it’s still early days. But it certainly has its
detractors, especially among the Teamsters. The union is filing a few
different petitions against various aspects of the new rules –
including a separate petition addressing team drivers and the sleeper
berth modification, which, it feels, "forces a team driver to "rest"
for eight hours in a moving truck, with engine noise, vibration, and
other distractions around them.

"The only thing this will do is force team drivers to drive for eight
hours straight, causing drivers to be more fatigued," says union chief
Jim Hoffa.

The Teamster’s petition, coupled with several others already filed by
the same safety advocates that forced the change to the first rule,
could send this rule into the tank, too. Better not get to used to this
one. It might not be around that long.

OOIDA is doing the same thing, but I think they are focusing more on the team portion. If they use the arguement that a codriver can’t get any rest in a moving truck, that puts the entire team concept in jeopardy, that’s not going to happen, but they should find a better arguement.j

UPDATE: I almost forgot the best part – Codrivers when taking their break, have to be in the sleeper berth. Riding in the passenger seat is "On-Duty" and screws up your continuous 10 hour sleeper berth time. Which means you have to start over. No riding up front, you have to stay locked in the sleeper berth for 10 hours. Doesn’t that sound like fun? And practical too!

Originally posted 2005-11-14 10:26:47.

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