Commentary
Late Thursday evening Texas Rep. (R) Brian Babin introduced a bill in the House that will change the hours of service regulations for American truckers. The bill is intended to modifiy the 14 hour rule and would allow drivers to enjoy a three-hour break without the time counting against the driver’s available hours.
The act, called “The Responsible and Effective Standards for Truckers (REST) Act” would require the Department of Transportation to update Hours of Service regulations to allow a rest break once per 14-hour duty period for up to 3 consecutive hours as long as the driver is off-duty, effectively pausing the 14-hour clock. However, drivers would still need to log ten consecutive hours off duty before the start of their next work shift. It would also eliminate the existing 30-minute rest break requirement.
While Rep. Babin has become a polarizing name in trucking circles with his fight over the ELD mandate, changing the hours of service rules would allow drivers to judge their own bodies and current conditions. It would also be an enormous victory for truckers. We also argue that it will make the industry safer.
FreightWaves’ own Chief Analytics Officer, Dean Croke (who ran data science at the largest ELD provider in North America) argued that the 14 hour rule should be scrapped all together. In his article, Why the 14-hour clock rule is the most dangerous of them all, Croke states that “the idea that by regulating hours worked we somehow magically ensure drivers are well-rested for the next shift is completely flawed.”
He describes that drivers need to have flexibility built into their available hours. Current regulations force drivers to compromise sleep schedules to maximize their earnings.
Drivers are paid on a per mile basis, but their capacity to earn is limited by how many hours they are able to drive. The more time drivers are delayed at docks, the less time they have to drive and earn. When shippers create delays, drivers end up pushing harder to make up for lost time.
Also (and perhaps less appreciated) is the impact of disrupted sleep caused by inconsistencies in the shipper community around loading/unloading schedules.
The politics of this debate will play out over coming months and there will be a lot of arguments here. As an organization that believes the answer lies in data and not in political expediency, we are of the opinion that the REST Act is one where data is on Babin’s side. We get millions of ELD data points daily, which we use to answer all sorts of questions around economics, capacity, pricing, driver behavior and safety. Based on our analysis, the drivers that experience the most volatile dock loading and unloading schedules are also the most prone to incidents or accidents.
Clearly, the irregular pattern at which shippers operate has an enormous impact on driver sleep schedule. Anyone that has traveled on a multi-city business trip with flight delays can relate to how exhausting this is.
In an ironic twist, ELDs that Rep. Babin fought so passionately against will end up proving that his proposed REST bill will make the industry safer. Overhauling the HOS rules and allowing for the driver to take a break without penalty will end up encouraging drivers that need a nap the opportunity to do so.
While ELD data can not prove Rep. Babin’s view that the ELD mandate is the “Dodd-Frank law of the trucking industry,” it can prove that driver fatigue without the opportunity for a break is a recipe for disaster.
As with any regulation change, carriers would want to ensure that this time is not given up to shippers for their own benefit. ELDs, combined with blockchain has the potential to prevent this from happening. ELDs record dock times and with blockchain carriers can find out what average wait times and schedule are at a given stop, prior to accepting a load. They can also hold shippers accountable for having inconsistencies either in the form of detention or refusing to accept their loads to begin with.
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54 Comments
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Dan Atkinson
Soooooo tired of hearing about truckers fight against ELD and HOS. They don’t like it, because they can’t lie! And they all lie! I don’t drive anymore, but when I did I hated doing paper logs.
Everyone else in the working world that is in a Safety Sensitive Position has to come to work Fit For Duty and rested. But for some reason, it eludes truck drivers. The 70’s are long gone when truckers could keep 3 or 4 logs, pop some white cross and listen to Convoy.
BTW, I wouldn’t worry about all of this anyway. Trucks will drive themselves soon enough and problem solved.
Homer
You’re full of shit Dan
Monica Davis
I disagree with you Dan. I am new truck driver. I love the ELD, BUT I don’t like that I don’t get paid for sitting at a shipper. I sat the other day for 6 hours…unpaid. By the time I could drive again my 14 hour clock was up. I was not tired because I slept more than half the hours while I was there. If this new law was in affect at least I would have had a couple more hours to drive before I had to take a 10 hour break. We also don’t get paid to drop and pick up a load, we don’t get paid for fueling, Scaling our load, for the required pre and post inspection, breakdowns or waiting in traffic jams. As it is now, I drove about 5 hours total, made about $120 and once taxes is taken out and I buy my food I will be lucky to clear $70. Now I have to sit another 10 hours making that a total of 16 hours off a day while I am away from home. Many drivers are quitting because they could make more at home on minimum wage and be able to see their family. As I say I love that the electronic logs keep track of my time because I despise doing papers logs myself. But something is going to have to happen…because strike or no strike truckers cant keep taking the financial burden.
Jason
Look into linehaul or dedicated routes. As it is now, I drive west out of Phoenix for about 4.5 hours, drop & hook, and drive back. Home every night, and only work 5 days a week. Extra trips available if I want to make a little extra money, but I gross about 1200/wk with just the 5 days.
Homer
I have been a trucker most of all my life. We started out making approximately $0.15 back in the 70s.. we actually got paid Hub milesl back then. Until President Jimmy Carter and President Reagan de-regulated the trucking industry. Now We truckers drive from zip code to zip code. And we don’t get paid for all our miles the companies we work for. The companies that we work for get away with free work of us drivers we actually drive 50 miles from one city to another city and don’t get paid for it. Like I said we get paid from zip code ZIP code ZIP code . This has been going on since 1970s but I think we truck drivers need to stand up since we have these clocks in our trucks now. We need to get paid like it was in the past from hub-to-hub now. Rise up my trucker Brothers it is time now to put an end to this we need to go on strike Brothers. We don’t get paid for sitting at shippers and the customers for hours that we don’t get paid for. Shippers allow us to sit there to 3 hours before we get paid we need detention . You see Brothers out here at my fellow truck drivers. It is not the White House that runs the country it is not the president that runs the country it is we truck drivers. It is everything they eat we eat we cloth they different sayings that America stands for is hauled by us we control the country. If you only stand with me and other fellow brothers and drivers out here for a living . We can get what we deserve and put this bullshit behind us and the past where companies rip us off left in light. We are the power of the country not you companies.
Aleks
10 hrs sleeping that’s stupid after 5 or 6 hrs I can’t sleep no more with noisy engines on, so 10 hrs rest doesn’t mean I rest well…
JOE ROGERS
I feel that the only thing that needs monitored is our 10hr sleep break we should not be regulated on what we do in 14hrs whether it be driving or loading also get rid of 70hr 8day rule who cares how many hrs I work in 8 days as long as I sleep 10hrs a night
Greivin solano
What about 700 miles in 24 hour ,, with 10 hour mandatory during the day
David
The industry will be safer if the rule changes passes? BALONEY! I see some of these drivers that are out here everyday. i DO NOT want them driving a CMV 17 hours after their On Duty cycle has begun. Oh and the guys that are cheating now will be free to cheat with an extra 3 hours to help the profits of some of the largets corporations in the US.
John
Do away with the 14hr rule, 11 &10 in a 24hr period, let the driver decide when they need to stop, ie. rest, to eat, waiting for rush hour to settle down, etc. With the ELD’s, traffic cams, scales & all the other things that we leave an electronic footprint with, we basically cannot step outside the lines anymore, so give us the 24hr day to get the job done safely & quit trying to micro-mananage every aspect of the trucking industry, because it never was & never will be a 9-5 job.
Brian Arthur
One of the major problems of this whole system is we have college educated people sitting behind desk that has never 1 day on the road or never been stuck out on Christmas with out seeing their families. 2nd problem is 90 percent of the trucking industry is cutting the trucks down to y5mph or like Ryder on the Toyota accounts cutting the trucks to 61mph this forces driver to run longer and harder because we can’t even do the speed limits which causes cars to get backed up and major problems come from that. The 3rd major problem is you have states like Tennessee who has closed almost all there rest areas. You want more trucks moving more freight rolling and you don’t have the intelligence to tell these companies turn the trucks up to the speed limits for everyone. 72mph in every truck ought to be a federal law for a minimum speed.
Trey
Tennessee hasn’t closed most of their rest areas. Only one I know that’s closed is the new rest area on I40 just east of Memphis. And it just hasn’t been opened yet. I driver 40, 65, 75, and 81 all the time and I don’t know if any closed rest area.