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HOURS OF SERVICE / FATIGUE

Turning Back the Clock on Truck Safety:
Major Unsafe Features of the 2005 Hours of Service (HOS) Rule

• Longer Driving Shifts:

► The final rule allows commercial drivers to drive a maximum of 11 consecutive hours, instead of 10 consecutive hours under the prior HOS rules, before a required rest period.
After 8 hours of consecutive driving, crashes increase dramatically, and even more steeply in the 10th and 11th hours of consecutive driving.

► There will be no adequate enforcement to stop abuses because in the final rule FMCSA does not require electronic on-board recorders for long haul truck drivers.

• Longer Driving and Working Hours Per Work Week and Month:
► The 2005 HOS rule allows commercial drivers to drive an additional 17 to 18 hours per week.

► The pre-2003 HOS rule capped driving at 60 hours in 7 calendar days (for companies on an
7-day rotation) or 70 hours in 8 calendar days (for companies on an 8-day rotation).

► The 2005 HOS rule permits drivers to accumulate as much as 77 hours of driving, instead of 60, in a 7 day period, or as much as 88 hours of driving, instead of 70, in an 8 day period by “restarting their driving clocks” through the use of the short, 34-hour layover provision.

► This allows about 70 additional hours of driving in a 30-day calendar month.

► The 2005 HOS rule also results in increased total working hours for drivers, far in excess of 60 or 70 hour weekly limits per 7 or 8 day tour of duty under the pre-2003 rule.

► According to the FMCSA, drivers on a 7-day rotation can now accrue a total of 84 hours of both work and driving, and drivers on an 8-day rotation can now accrue a total of 98 hours of both work and driving.

► These figures show that drivers under the 2005 HOS rule can reach total of between 365 and 390 hours of on-duty time each month.

► These totals are double the amount of hours worked by the average U.S. worker.

• Less Time Off During A “Floating” Work Week:
► The work week is no longer of fixed length (7 or 8 calendar days); it is a “floating” work week based on how fast a driver exhausts the allowed 60 or 70 driving hours and then, after 34 hours off, “restarts” a new “floating” work week.

► The pre-2003 rule allowed drivers to have as much as 3 days or more off before starting to drive again if drivers used up 60 or 70 hours as fast as possible in a 7- or 8-day work week.

► The 2005 HOS rule, however, provides only a minimum 34-hour restart break between work weeks – drivers can be required to return to driving after only 34 hours off-duty and to drive and work additional hours during the time they used to be off-duty.

► Weekends are eliminated. For example, a driver who completes a weekly tour of duty at 8 AM Wednesday morning, can restart work after a 34 layover at 6 PM Thursday night.

• Non-circadian Drive/Rest Shift Cycle:
► The 2005 HOS rule continues the same problem that existed in the pre-2003 rule, that a drive/rest cycle of less than 24 hours ignores the 24-hour biological or circadian “clock” that controls a healthy work/sleep cycle.

► The 2005 HOS rule permits drivers to continually alternate a maximum of 11 hours of driving with a minimum 10 hours of rest time in a 21-hour rearward rotating, noncircadian shift cycle.

► This work/rest cycle can force drivers to begin driving 3 hours earlier for each successive driving shift.

• Interrupted Rest and Recovery Time Still Permitted:
► The final rule continues to permit communications from motor carrier and shippers that repeatedly interrupt driver sleep and rest and recovery time during off-duty periods.

► These interruptions can occur at any time during the 10 hours minimum rest time, the 34 hour restart recovery period, and even during the short 2 hours off-duty period after the driver takes a required, minimum 8 hours off-duty in a sleeper berth.

• Millions of Truck Drivers Are now Allowed to Drive even Longer Hours Without Logbooks:
► The 2005 HOS rule allows drivers who are not required to have Commercial Driver Licenses and operate trucks 26,000 pounds gross vehicle weight or less in short-haul operations, to drive and work up to 16 hours for 2 days in every 7 or 8 day tour of duty, double the number of 16-hour work days permitted under the 2003 HOS rule.

► In addition, if these drivers operate within a 150 airmile radius of their normal work reporting location, they no longer have to keep logbooks showing how much time they worked, drove, or took off-duty.

► For all practical purposes, these drivers will receive no real oversight and enforcement of their hours of service requirements because even paper logbooks will not be available to enforcement authorities for review to determine hours of service compliance.

• No Requirement for Electronic On-Board Recorders:
► Once again, the FMCSA final rule fails to require or even deal with the issue of using electronic on-board recorders to enforce hours of service requirements.

• Split Rest Time in Sleeper Berths:
► Drivers are no longer required to spend 10 hours off-duty in their sleeper berths, but are now required to spend only 8 consecutive hours in sleeper berths.

►Drivers are allowed to spend the additional 2 hours of off-duty time any way they choose – they do not necessarily have to rest or sleep.

►This new sleeper berth rule essentially returns drivers to the pre-2003 rule where they have only a single 8-hour period to get their basic sleep needs.

►Several studies have shown that when drivers have only one major sleeping period of 8 hours made available by regulation, they usually average only 5 to 5.5 hours of sleep.