Letter to the Editor: Hours-of-Service Ruling

This Letter to the Editor appears in the July 30 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

If the hours-of-service court ruling is upheld, it will definitely hurt us as an intermodal carrier.

With lost time at rail yards and freight depots, loads may be undeliverable due to the limits we will be facing. With split sleeper-berth limits, 14-hour locked shifts and no 34-hour restart — not good.

They should put the original HOS back in place and suspend carriers not in compliance. These new rules will kill the carrier who tries to be or is in complete compliance.

Shippers and consignees will not stay open 24 hours to ship and receive. Therefore, this will lock our appointments into 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. in most cases.

Loads that can be delivered tomorrow, but the drivers do not have hours, will have to wait until day two, which could result in storage, per diem or even loss of accounts to a motor carrier.

Owner-operators and drivers alike are going to “hit the roof.” I would not want to be a driver today.

Janet Cervantes
Vice President
Hammer Express
Brookfield, Ill.