Letters to the Editor: HOS Once Again

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agree with almost everything that ATA President Bill Graves said in “Hours-of-Service Rules to Live By.” (Click here for previous coverage.)

The one issue our industry is having that really needs to be addressed is the difference between cumulative and consecutive hours driven or worked. This fundamental change is causing vehicle operators to drive longer without breaks.

We have taken the rest periods away, so now the feeling is, “I have to drive or I cannot make delivery.”

Instead of driving three to five hours and then taking a break, the driver feels compelled to continue driving eight to 11 hours straight. Under current conditions, his break time counts against him. Under the old system, in 2003 and earlier, it did not.

Until this issue is resolved, drivers will drive more, with less rest. This does not promote safety. It does promote driver fatigue and log falsification.

Ray Middleton

I>Transportation Manager

etl-Span

allas

I think the special-interest groups are out of line, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the courts are not bold enough to tell these people to “stuff it.”

I have been quite satisfied with the January 2004 changes in the Hours-of-Service rules, and in our less-than-truckload business, they are working OK. The so-called experts who criticize the changes have no idea what they are talking about unless they have had at least 10 years of over-the-road trucking, running coast-to-coast and border-to-border under almost every imaginable situation.

I take great pleasure in knowing how to use my logbook to benefit my working conditions. I do not run during daylight any more than I have to.

Most of the time, I’m out on the road in the very late evening into the early hours of the morning and find that very productive. I do not like to be in heavy traffic on the road when I’m running the speed limit. Of course, the East Coast is quite the exception, and I prepare for it mentally.

Some time ago, I wrote FMCSA Administrator Annette Sandberg a letter expressing my views on the current hours of service. I let her know there is no control over what drivers or owner-operators do during their 10-hour breaks. If drivers choose not to sleep, that is up to them, whether because they are not able to sleep right then or they do not have the discipline to go to bed in the first place.

Fatigue thus becomes a personal discipline issue that cannot believe legislated or regulated. When bureaucrats can get this through their thick skulls — that they have no control over the driver’s 10-hour break — then things may simmer down.

Just remember, truckers are not the only ones who drive fatigued. The four-wheelers are just as bad. Why are we the only ones conspired against?

Ron Keiser

i>Driver/Chaplain

enney Transport

hepherd’s Flock Ministries

rvada, Colo.

These letters appeared in the Aug. 29 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.