Carriers Say New Rules to Spur Historic Changes

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fter first applauding new hours-of-service regulations for truck drivers, many carrier executives now say the rules represent the biggest change ever in the way the industry operates.

To many, the long-awaited new rules announced April 28 seemed to be an immense improvement over a proposal put out in April 2000 during the final year of the Clinton administration.

That plan would have applied separate rules to each of five types of trucking operations and drew a chorus of criticism from both inside and outside the industry.

Soon after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published this year’s hours-of-service rules, American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said, “This is a package that our members can work with.”

While trucking remains supportive of the new hours rules, as carriers began to assess the impact of the new rules over the summer it became apparent that they would require a fundamental change in the way carriers account for drivers’ time.

For the full story, see the Dec. 1 edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.