Opinion: Here’s the Deal on Hours of Service

By Kevin Kuntz

otz Trucking Inc.

In his June 5 opinion piece, Clyde J. Hart Jr., the acting deputy administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, tried to explain “what’s the deal” with the hours-of-service proposal. The federal government is proposing a rule that would ensure drivers of large trucks and buses the opportunity to get adequate rest. It sounds great in theory, but let’s look at the big picture and leave politics out of it for the moment.

We all know that the current rule is more than 60 years old. But today the roads are 100 times better and the trucks are 1,000 times safer than they were in 1937. Believe me, driving 10 to 12 hours today is much less tiring and stressful than 10 to 12 hours of driving back then.

Let’s look at the industry back then: Trucks had to travel on narrow, two-lane roads and through towns and cities; engines used gasoline, not diesel, meaning they produced very low power and extreme heat; and tractor cabs had no air conditioning and very little heat. There was no radio to listen to; no power steering or air brakes; no spring suspension, let alone air-ride; and the seat was bolted directly to the floor of the cab.

Let’s look at a few improvements since then: Nearly all over-the-road trucks have air-ride suspension, air-ride seats and air-ride cabs — most trucks ride nearly as well as cars. All trucks have air conditioning and a good heater. They have diesel engines, which mean they run cooler and more efficiently. There are many safety features, but I will list just a few: power steering, self-adjusting air brakes, anti-skid brake systems, engine retarders, better lighting and much better mirrors, quality tires and the best highway system in the world.

We need to look deeper into the causes of crashes.

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There are many, many more vehicles on the roads today. Most of today’s automobile drivers are uneducated about semis. People do not understand how much room it takes to turn or how long it takes to stop a tractor-trailer, or how difficult it is to see a car from inside the cab.

Deregulation made it easy for many individuals to start their own trucking company, and this was the beginning of many problems. Rates have been lowered over the years while the costs of equipment, insurance, fuel, driver wages, license fees, etc., have escalated. Drivers have to work harder and more hours to make the same money they did 20 years ago.

Shippers and customers bear none of the liability. They call you at 2 p.m. and want a load a thousand miles away the next day. If you tell them you can’t do it legally, they tell you they will find someone else. This happens all the time. Just-in-time delivery has created many safety hazards, yet there is no recourse with the shipper. When you don’t deliver the load on time or when the customer wants it, you may get short-paid or not paid at all. If the plant has to shut down, you may be held accountable even if you tell them the driver was out of hours or had to stop and sleep.

Waiting to be loaded or unloaded can be more fatiguing for a driver than actually driving. Warehouses across the country make the driver load or unload the trailer by hand or restack pallets so they will fit their particular racking system. It’s free labor for them. Shippers may delay you for hours and still expect you to be 600 miles away the next morning. Most drivers get paid by the mile, and so they must keep driving in order to make any money. This must be changed if you want driver fatigue to end.

Nearly 16 years ago, the weight limit was raised from 73,280 pounds to 80,000 pounds. Trailer have increased from 40 feet to 53 feet in length and from 96 inches to 102 inches in width. Many companies pull doubles and even triple-trailers on the Interstates. These changes enabled shippers to move more freight per trip, which helped the economy but not the trucking industry. We haul more for less money, and that certainly has not helped safety.

If safety truly is your highest priority, you need to look at all the things mentioned above and change the way the entire industry is being operated nationwide.

ou do not regulate the number of hours salespeople drive on the highway. You do not regulate the hours factory workers work and then drive home. Operators that run nuclear power plants can work more hours than we can and then drive home. Our office is five miles from a nuclear power plant and there have been numerous accidents and several deaths because of the way employees from that plant drive. Construction people can work 16 hours a day driving construction equipment and then drive home. Does any of this make sense to you?

If the Department of Transportation truly wants to make our highways safer, changes need to be made. Many have been listed above. I am positive that many in the trucking industry can help in making our highways safer, if you will listen.

Mr. Kuntz is operations director for Lotz Trucking in Seneca, Ill.