HOS * USA - FMCSA posts new HOS data, extends comment period and publication date for Final Rule

New studies before its work on the Final Rule

Washington,DC,USA -The Trucker, by Lyndon Finney -6 May 2011: -- The agency said since it is committed to receiving and analyzing all public comments on the studies before it completes its work on the Final Rule, the agency will extend the Final Rule publication date, which was set for July 26...   It appears everyone’s going to have to wait past July to see the Final Rule on the current proposed rulemaking for Hours of Service...  The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Friday morning it had placed four additional research studies in the official rulemaking docket and was reopening the comment period to allow for public review and discussion of these studies...  The four studies are:  The Impact of Driving, Non-Driving Work, and Rest Breaks on Driving Performance in Commercial Motor Vehicle Operations; Hours of Service and Driver Fatigue-Driver Characteristics Research; Analysis of the Relationship Between Operator Cumulative Driving Hours and Involvement in Preventable Collisions; and Potential Causes Of Driver Fatigue: A Study On Transit Bus Operators In Florida...  The American Trucking Associations, which has vehemently opposed the proposed new rulemaking, reacted quickly: "Given that DOT, according to a key sleep and health research, may have misused scientific data as part of this process, ATA will carefully review this new information. We hope and trust that FMCSA will give stakeholders adequate time to evaluate it” ... (Photo from gpssystems.net: Hours of service)

HOS * Canada - Atlantic provinces truckers oppose U.S.A. changes

Would impact productivity

Dieppe,NB,Canada -CBC News -Mar 14, 2011: -- Truckers in Atlantic Canada are joining a national lobby against a United States government proposal to shorten truck drivers hours and increase mandatory down time when operating south of the border...  In late December, the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration touched off a continent-wide debate when it proposed new hours of service for truckers in the United States...  A key change for the Canadian industry is a new reset: the time a driver must wait before getting back on the road after completing a work week...  The new proposal requires a break of 34 hours over two midnights...  Jean Marc Picard, executive director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association, warned that change could strand drivers and their rigs for days... (Photo from CBC: Truckers are against new rules proposed by the U.S. government)

HOS RULES * USA - ATA: Study Casts Doubt on Proposed HOS Rule’s Economics, Safety Issues

Washington,DC,USA -Transport Topics -17 Feb 2011: -- An analysis of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s proposed hours-of-service rule released by American Trucking Associations found that the agency “wildly overstated the proposal’s benefits” and that it would cost, not save, the trucking industry money...  The economic review by consulting firm Edgeworth Economics found that FMCSA used questionable logic, inadequate data and sloppy math in attempting to justify its proposed changes to the HOS rule, ATA said...  The study said that while FMCSA claims its proposal would result in up to $380 million in annual benefits, it would actually result in costs of about $320 million a year — a $700 million swing...  Edgeworth has done economic studies work for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, among others...  ATA released the findings late Wednesday, on the eve of a public HOS “listening session” to be held Thursday in Washington. The group has urged its members to voice their opposition to the proposed changes. The group posted the study’s results on its website...

* USA - Carrier Says Hours Plan Would Boost Driver Pay... Truckers skeptical, but Schneider executive says driver pay would rise $3,000

Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -Feb 17, 2011: -- Schneider National would need to increase driver pay by about $3,000 per year "to keep commercial drivers whole from a W-2 perspective" if proposed changes in hours of service rules take effect, an executive at the transportation company said... "I think we're going to have to increase driver pay," Osterberg told a panel of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration officials at a listening session... That pay increase would compensate drivers for lost mileage under the FMCSA's proposed HOS rules, which would cut at least an hour from a trucker's work day. Under the proposed rule, Schneider estimates its drivers would lose 24 miles a day... Drivers calling into the listening session from the road were skeptical that they would see any benefits from the proposed rules, however, noting that they are not paid for time spent waiting for their trailer to be loaded or unloaded... Green Bay, Wis.-based Schneider used a network optimization system developed with Princeton University in New Jersey to calculate the effect of the proposed hours of service changes on its diverse long-haul and short-haul trucking operations...(Photo from farm3.static.flickr: A Schneider's truck)

* USA - Shipper Says HOS Changes Would Hike Transport Costs

Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce,by William B. Cassidy -Feb 18, 2011: -- Costs could rise up to 3 percent under proposed hours rule, says Kraft's Haney... Proposed changes to truck driver hours of service rules would raise transportation costs 1 to 3 percent, one of the nation's largest food shippers said Thursday... That could translate into tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in additional transportation spending for many of the nation's largest shippers... The $49 billion food products company operates a private fleet of trucks for about 10 percent of its domestic hauling business in the U.S., Haney said... (Photo from bloomberg: International Paper Co's a six-axle truck)


* HOS Proposal No Panacea, Attorney Says. Critic of current rule calls 10-hour limit only a step in ‘right direction’

Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce, by William B. Cassidy -Feb 18, 2011: -- An attorney for the coalition that won two court victories over recent hours of service rules for truckers says the most recent proposed rule a step in the “right direction,” but it may not go far enough to stop a lawsuit... “The proposal is not a panacea, it doesn’t meet the positions that we would like to see, but it certainly moves the issue in the right direction,” Henry Jasny, senior counsel for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, told federal officials... The proposed rule would take corrective action toward rules that already allow truckers to drive “excessively long hours” on “intense operating schedules,” Jasney said, adding that description applies to “some drivers,” but not “all drivers”... The attorney spoke on behalf of Advocates and its allies, Public Citizen and the Teamsters union, which sued the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration over previous versions of the HOS rules, at a full-day HOS listening session Thursday... (Photo from ccjdigital: fatigued trucker)

HOS Rules * UK - RHA welcomes temporary drivers’ hours relaxation

London,EN,UK -HGV UK -December 6, 2010: -- The Road Haulage Association tonight welcomed the Department for Transport’s decision to relax temporarily the enforcement of EU drivers’ hours rules... This temporary relaxation applies immediately and will run until 23:59 on 7 December 2010. For those drivers and work in question, the EU drivers’ hours rules will be temporarily relaxed as follows:

* Replace the EU daily driving limit of 9 hours with one of 10 hours

* Reduce the daily rest requirements from 11 to 9 hours.

* Lift the weekly (56 hours) and fortnightly driving limit (90 hours).

* Postponing the weekly rest requirement until 23:59 on 7 December 2010, at which stage a driver has to take a normal weekly rest of 45 hours.

* Notwithstanding the postponement of the weekly rest requirement (see preceding bullet point), a driver must take a minimum rest of 24 hours beginning no later than the end of the eleventh day since the end of his last weekly rest period.

The requirement to take a 45 minute break after 4½ hours driving remains and will continue to be rigorously enforced... (Picture from tachoblog: Daniel Pereira Casalinho has been hauling ice cream, vegetables and paper all over Europe in the new Scania V8)