The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | New Hours of Service Non Story

The new Hours of Service rules, from Jan ‘04 are back in the news after the energy bill that Bush signed contained provisions to keep the Hours of Service at 11 hours of driving with a few changes. I’m only mentioning this because it’s in the news everywhere but, it’s not really a new story. There’s nothing there except that PATT, CRASH and Public Citizen are making a big deal because they didn’t get their way.  Here’s all my previous posts about the new HOS.

Agency keeps rule letting truckers drive 11-hour shifts.
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration declined to downshift Friday on the number of hours a long-haul trucker can drive without rest, and drew immediate criticism from highway safety activists.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced new "hours of service" regulations on the trucking industry, but left intact a controversial, two-year-old provision allowing drivers to stay on the road 11 hours without a required rest.

Everything is the same except for the split sleeper berth rule has changed. When I was driving solo, I didn’t really use that rule very much. It was better to drive your 10 or 11 hours and then stop rather than trying to take a long break in the middle of the day.  But some people  like to take a nap during the day which is fine, and that should stay the same, but starting Oct 1st, that part of the rule is changing. 

Another change requires truckers who use sleeper berths
to rest for eight hours in a row and take another two hours off duty
before starting a new shift. Currently drivers may break up their rest
time in
the berths. Sandberg said studies show that drivers are less fatigued
if they take a single eight-hour block of rest rather than shorter
period

Several driver forums I frequent (and myself included) are confused
by this. Before teams could drive 5 and 5 or any combination of
sleep/driving they wanted to. Now (I think)
they will have to drive 8
and 8 or maybe even 10 and 10, which is tough to do. Most teams I’ve
talked to or heard from like the 5 and 5 for many reasons. If we have
to drive 8 and 8 or more we have three months after Oct where
enforcement will be lax (happens after every rule change), after that,
if nothing changes, we’ll have to get creative. I’m not sure how at the
moment, but I’ve got some time to figure something out. 

Don’t you just love this headline?

SouthBendTribune.com: Sleepy truckers? New law allows 11-hour drives.

I know I do. Nothing like trying to scare everyone. Makes my point of a couple of posts ago about the press in general against truckers.

Here’s the official FMCSA page with the new rule.