Fleet Execs, Drivers Urge More Flexibility in HOS Rules
DALLAS — Trucking industry officials said that while they needed more flexibility to take rest breaks, the current hours-of-service rules were working.
The executives testified Friday at the second public hearing held by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as it reviews the current HOS rules.
Joe Rajkovacz, director of regulatory affairs for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said that despite claims of increased driving time and fatigue by critics of the rule, “truckers have never been safer.”
“We could all probably cherry pick from a menu of studies . . . but the data that matters more than ivory tower hypothetical scenarios proves something altogether different,” he said, citing recent reports about the decline in the large truck fatal crash rate and other figures. “The real stats are not indicative that major changes need to be made to the federal hours of service.”
John Spiros, vice president of safety and claims management for Roehl Transport, said that a “common complaint” from drivers was the inability to flexibly split their time in the sleeper berth and proposed allowing drivers to take a short break during the day by stopping the 14-hour clock that limits a driver’s workday.
“If a driver takes a short rest break during the day, up to two hours of that time would not count against the 14-hour clock,” he said, adding the break “would have the effect of extending a drivers work day, but by no more than two hours.”
Ralph Garcia, a driver with ABF Freight System and a member of America’s Road Team, said with “just a little bit more flexibility,” drivers would be able to rest when they felt tired, rather than continuing to drive.
Garcia said even “an hour would be sufficient where it doesn’t count against your 14 [-hour work limit].”
David Hedgepeth, vice president of risk management, compliance and safety for Frozen Food Express, said that the fleet’s analysis of the impact of the current rules found that not only have the current limits on driving “not had a negative impact . . . it has had a positive.”
Hedgepeth said most of FFE’s drivers do not drive all 11 hours they are allowed to in a work day and a “very, very low percentage” of the fleet’s crashes have occurred in that 11th hour of driving.
By Sean McNally
Senior Reporter
