Fleet Officials: HOS Problems Are Fewer Than Anticipated
ALLAS — The costs of lost productivity and higher driver wages resulting from new federal hours-of-service rules for drivers were lower than truckload carriers originally anticipated, fleet officials and American Trucking Associations said. However, industry representatives said several factors made it difficult to assess the HOS changes’ effect.
“The improving economy and tight capacity have made the impact of the hours-of-service changes hard to determine,” said Dave Osiecki, ATA vice president of safety and operations. “Truckload has not seen a huge impact so far. We were getting reports early on about utilization declines. But that seems to have come back. We’re getting positive reports. But the effects may be masked.”
Osiecki said the economic and capacity effects could linger even if the Department of Transportation changes some parts of the regulation, such as allowing local drivers to extend their shifts by two hours.
His comments were echoed by several fleet executives attending the June 27-29 meeting here of ATA’s National Accounting and Finance Council.
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