Letters to the Editor: Hours of Service (Cont'd.)

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have been a driver for 23 years. The new hours of service have increased productivity in our company. This whining about 14 hours on duty and an extra hour of driving isn’t really an issue. Safety on the roads has nothing to do with these new hours-of-service rules. The problem of safety on the roads would be there whether the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration changed the rules or not.

Impatient and inconsiderate drivers will be on the road long after the rest of us are dead and gone. Tailgaters, speeders and NASCAR-wannabes are the safety issues that need to be addressed. Eight, 10 or 11 hours of driving doesn’t matter because most such drivers do not follow laws anyway. Indiana raised its speed limit for trucks to 65 mph. Now, instead of traveling 65 mph to 70 mph in a 60 mph zone, these trucks are running more than 75 mph. There is your safety situation.

The drivers who say the new rules don’t increase their sleep are the same drivers who are not even in the bunk for the 10 hours. The safety issue of fatigue does not include the drivers who are driving the allotted 11 hours. It is the drivers who are driving as long as they can, then sleeping a couple of hours, then getting up and doing it all again.

Logbooks are one of the biggest jokes in the industry. Consider that you can buy loose-leaf logbooks and extra pages. The appearance of being legal is all that is. Most inspectors do not even look at the logbook anymore.

hen I offer mine, most officers decline to look at it.

This industry is based on performance — nothing else. If all the drivers were on salary, the speeding and illegal logging would decrease. Some think that placing drivers on the hour is what is needed. Wrong answer; we are on the hour and we still have some drivers who have to push the envelope each and every day.

To make this industry safe is nearly impossible, but the main thing to do is to hold the companies responsible — period. If a driver runs illegally and gets fined, the company pays the fine. It’s the opposite right now — the drivers eat the cost and the company keeps pushing them for more production, without recourse or accountability.

The only thing that is needed is a federal speed limit for each and every state. The consumption of fuel is much higher with vehicles traveling 60 mph to 80 mph. Slow everyone down. Cars do not need to travel 15 mph faster than the trucks, and no vehicle should be able to travel 100 mph.

Engine governors should be used more often in trucking, as well as in the automotive industry. The federal speed limit, for example, should be 60 mph and no vehicle should be able to continuously surpass that speed for any length of time. An override button should be accessible if a driver needs to pass someone or to increase power, but for only minutes at a time.

Thomas Oswald

i>Regional Over-the-Road Driver

hicago

With the pressures of rising fuel costs, coupled with the lower fuel economy associated with the new 2007 engine requirements, why are we as an industry allowing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to sucker punch us on the hours-of-service issue, when every recent study shows lower accident rates nationwide?

Gary New

i>Owner

NT Inc.

exarkana, Ark.

These letters appear in the Oct. 24 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.