'Weekend' Rest Would Hurt Productivity, Analyst Says

The mandatory “weekends” that drivers would be required to take under the Department of Transportation’s hour-of-service proposal would cut into trucking productivity more than any other provision of the regulations — possibly by as much as 28%, according to a consultant’s study.

W. Kelly Anderson of Impact Transportation Solutions, Joplin, Mo., compared two hypothetical routes — a long-haul irregular route and a shorter dedicated run — to see how far a driver could get under the current rules and under DOT’s proposal.

nderson found the proposed rules left a driver way behind the point he would be under current regulations. The biggest hunk of time was not chopped from the amount of hours a trucker could work — drivers operating under the proposed rules never ran out of hours. The two-night break DOT wants to require every seven days is the real distance-cutter, he found.

“These rules make over-the-road trucking just not realistic,” said Anderson, who performed the analysis for the Arkansas Trucking Association along with fellow consultant Jim Randels.

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