TCA Urges Hours of Service Update
TCA wants the current cap on a driver’s on-duty status of 70 hours in eight days removed. Unlike drivers for regular route carriers, drivers for long-haul irregular route carriers often find themselves in remote or unsafe locations when they are forced to stop, said David McCorkle of McCorkle Truck Lines.
“We want to have a good place for a driver to rest,” said McCorkle, a member of the association’s safety committee. “Roadside parks are not a proper place to rest and recover.”
TCA also wants to extend the daily on-duty cycle for drivers by as much as two hours on no more than two occasions in a seven-day period. In effect, a driver “borrows” time against the next day to make up for time lost to unexpected events such as inclement weather, shipper delays or equipment breakdown.
On other safety issues, TCA will continue to push for relief from alcohol and drug testing for fleets that have achieved positive test rates of less than 1%.
TCA also wants federal and state highway safety enforcement personnel to share more information with fleets when drivers fail drug tests, and urged its members to report instances of abuse from roadside inspections.
The association also endorsed automated pre-clearance systems so long as they are equitable and protect the privacy of carriers by not sharing proprietary electronic transmission codes. It suggested that the systems should also be limited to carriers that meet strict safety standards.
