Inspectors Cite Complications in DOT’s Hours Reform

NEW ORLEANS — The people who enforce the hours of service agree that the 61-year-old regulations need to be updated to reflect modern trucking, but the Department of Transportation’s proposal is developing a reputation among the ranks of roadside inspectors as being too complex.

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Tops on the law enforcement officers’ wish list is for simplicity in the policy. DOT wants to replace the current rules, which generally enable drivers to spend 10 hours behind the wheel during a 15-hour workday, with one that places truck operators into one of five categories.

“Everybody has to be able to understand [the new regulations] — inspectors, carriers and drivers,” said Sgt. Donald C. Bridge Jr., a training officer with the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles. “The rule should be kept as basic as it can be. The research doesn’t prove to me that we need five types of driver categories.

“Show us that we need five types of drivers,” he said.

For the full story, see the Aug. 21 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.