Carriers, Inspectors React to DOT's Hours Proposal

Some of the men and women on the front lines of the battle against driver fatigue are worried that the Department of Transportation’s revisions to the hours-of-service regulations may be too complicated to enforce effectively.

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“We are concerned about enforceability,” said Stephen F. Campbell, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. “If we have four or five different [classes of drivers], it will be hard to determine if drivers are off duty or are out of hours.”

DOT is proposing to classify drivers as long-haul, regional, split-shift or local pickup and delivery. The fifth category is workers whose driving is incidental to their primary job.

Campbell wondered if DOT was going too far, too fast in proposing a complete overhaul of the regulations:

“No one would disagree that a 62-year-old law needs some tweaking, but is a complete overhaul necessary? There are some sectors of trucking that operate very safely under the current hours-of-service rules.”

For the full story, see the May 8 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.