Shippers Resist HOS-Based Rate Increases
TLANTA - While some truckload carriers said new hours of service regulations for truck drivers would hurt productivity, shippers said it should not be an excuse to raise rates. And an industry researcher said the HOS rules could improve productivity in the long run.
“From a shippers standpoint, the hours of service can’t be a lightening rod for a broad round of rate increases,” said Tony Brooks, vice president of transportation services for Sears Logistics Services.
The industry officials spoke at a HOS conference here Thursday co-sponsored by Schneider National Inc. and the Logistics Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Shipper representatives said carriers need to substantiate the impact of the new rules and work cooperatively to eliminate delays that can drive up costs.
“No doubt costs will go up,” said Jim Andrews, transportation manager for North America for Newell Rubbermaid. “But we don’t intend to take an increase just because of this change.”
The consensus among carrier executives was that the new rules would curtail productivity by as much as 20% and raise transportation costs, particularly on short-haul and multi-stop truckload routes.
Researcher Dale Belman of Michigan State University said the new rules could, in theory, allow some drivers to actually work more – as many as 3,366 hours a year compared to 3,000 hours a year under the old rules – because of the extra hour of driving time allowed each day, a 34-hour restart provision and what he termed the “lack of effective enforcement.”
Belman said he expects violations of the 14-hour rule to be commonplace and, as a consequence, “It is unlikely the new rules will markedly reduce driver fatigue.”
Thomas Marlow, a division administrator with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration who spoke at the conference, said the agency stands by its calculation that the new rules will reduce the number of fatigue-related deaths on the highway.
Carrier representatives said they are committed to abiding by the new rules.
“We are late to the game in trying to mitigate the impact of these rules,” said Scott Arves, president of Schneider National’s Transportation Division. “Every driver hour now is golden. The industry has to commit to something that is long overdue and allow the driver to do the work he was hired to do.”
