(Grain Valley, MO) – Professional truck drivers won’t be surprised if mainstream media headlines announcing the newly proposed hours of service include phrases about “tired truckers” or “fatigued truckers” or similar innuendos. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), which represents more than 153,000 professional drivers and small business truckers, wants to emphasize that hours spent driving is only a part of the overall issue and that all involved in the transportation supply chain have a role in highway safety.
“We want the motoring public to know that it’s not just about how long a truck driver spends behind the wheel that affects the safety of everyone on the highways,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president. “Many truck drivers spend between 30-40 hours per week waiting at loading docks. Everyone involved in transportation, from shippers to receivers, has a responsibility for its role in keeping highways safe. And we won’t have optimum safety until others in the supply chain truly act responsibly.”
Proposed changes are taking place in the regulations that govern hours of service for commercial vehicles drivers. That proposal will go through a review process before becoming final summer of 2011.
About a year ago, an organization that previously has fought for changes in current hours-of-service regulations, agreed to suspend its legal challenge to specific provisions in the regulations. In exchange, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) agreed to send the hours-of-service regulations back through the regulatory process. FMCSA had promised to take a fresh look at the rules and finalize a new rule in 21 months.
Since that time, the FMCSA has held numerous listening sessions where they heard truck drivers, many of which were OOIDA members, share their concerns about the need for flexibility in the work day to take needed rest breaks, and that with the current rule, there is no incentive for drivers to take breaks that cut into driving time.
“To say the least, federal hours-of-service regulations are consequential to the lives and livelihoods of our nation’s truck drivers,” said Spencer. “Those rules govern truckers whether they are behind the wheel of a truck or off duty and at home with their families.”
OOIDA has long held that to meaningfully improve highway safety, proposed changes would need to include all aspects of a truckers’ workday that affect the ability to drive safely. This includes loading and unloading times, split sleeper berth for team operations, and the ability to interrupt the 14-hour day for needed rest periods.
As far as the details of the proposed changes, OOIDA has not yet provided an opinion. “We have been anxiously awaiting the public release of the proposed new rules,” said Spencer. “We are carefully analyzing the proposal, but I can tell you that to make additional safety gains, the next hours-of-service rule must be more flexible to allow drivers to sleep when tired and to work when rested. The rules must encourage truck drivers to get off the road when they are tired and must not penalize them for doing so.”
INFO ABOUT TRUCK CRASHES
The latest statistics from FMCSA on truck-related fatalities
www.fmcsa.dot.gov/facts-research/media/webinar-10-09-29-slides.pdf
“We want the motoring public to know that it’s not just about how long a truck driver spends behind the wheel that affects the safety of everyone on the highways,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president. “Many truck drivers spend between 30-40 hours per week waiting at loading docks. Everyone involved in transportation, from shippers to receivers, has a responsibility for its role in keeping highways safe. And we won’t have optimum safety until others in the supply chain truly act responsibly.”
Proposed changes are taking place in the regulations that govern hours of service for commercial vehicles drivers. That proposal will go through a review process before becoming final summer of 2011.
About a year ago, an organization that previously has fought for changes in current hours-of-service regulations, agreed to suspend its legal challenge to specific provisions in the regulations. In exchange, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) agreed to send the hours-of-service regulations back through the regulatory process. FMCSA had promised to take a fresh look at the rules and finalize a new rule in 21 months.
Since that time, the FMCSA has held numerous listening sessions where they heard truck drivers, many of which were OOIDA members, share their concerns about the need for flexibility in the work day to take needed rest breaks, and that with the current rule, there is no incentive for drivers to take breaks that cut into driving time.
“To say the least, federal hours-of-service regulations are consequential to the lives and livelihoods of our nation’s truck drivers,” said Spencer. “Those rules govern truckers whether they are behind the wheel of a truck or off duty and at home with their families.”
OOIDA has long held that to meaningfully improve highway safety, proposed changes would need to include all aspects of a truckers’ workday that affect the ability to drive safely. This includes loading and unloading times, split sleeper berth for team operations, and the ability to interrupt the 14-hour day for needed rest periods.
As far as the details of the proposed changes, OOIDA has not yet provided an opinion. “We have been anxiously awaiting the public release of the proposed new rules,” said Spencer. “We are carefully analyzing the proposal, but I can tell you that to make additional safety gains, the next hours-of-service rule must be more flexible to allow drivers to sleep when tired and to work when rested. The rules must encourage truck drivers to get off the road when they are tired and must not penalize them for doing so.”
INFO ABOUT TRUCK CRASHES
The latest statistics from FMCSA on truck-related fatalities
www.fmcsa.dot.gov/facts-research/media/webinar-10-09-29-slides.pdf
0 comments:
Post a Comment