Editorial: Expensive HOS Changes

New data clearly support what many of us have been saying for months: The new changes to the federal hours-of-service rule for truck drivers are reducing productivity, undermining service levels and raising costs.

In our story this week on p. 1, we detail the findings of a study by the American Transportation Research Institute showing that since the rules changes went into effect, fleets have had to hire more drivers and pay them more, buy more trucks and, perhaps most disturbing, lower their customers’ expectations about the level of service they can provide.

The changes also have forced drivers to spend more time on the road during peak congestion periods and have led to reduced wages due to their driving fewer miles.

The ATRI survey estimated that the impact on driver wages alone of the rules changes, which require a 30-minute rest break after drivers have been behind the wheel for eight hours, is between $1.6 billion and $3.9 billion a year.

The changes also restrict the use of the so-called 34-hour restart provision of the HOS rule by requiring that the restart off-duty time includes two periods from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. on consecutive days.

ATRI, which is a unit of American Trucking Associations, conducted the study of fleets and published the results on Nov. 18.

Two days later, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association’s foundation released the results of its own study of the issue, with very similar findings.

Some shippers we interviewed for the story provided additional insight into the impact the changes are having in the marketplace.

An official of Owens Corning, the building products supplier, told us that its on-time deliveries to customers have fallen between 4 and 5 percentage points since the changes went into effect earlier this year.

And an executive with the in-house logistics operation at fast-food chain Wendy’s said its freight rates have risen 2% up to now. While the increases were below the 8% it anticipated, she said officials were concerned about what would happen to rates when the company began to negotiate new long-term deals with its carriers in the spring.

Once again, we need to state that the HOS rules changes that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has imposed on the industry are not worth the kind of disruption they are wreaking on the distribution of freight in the nation and the kind of expense they are adding to the distribution of all the products we consume.