Because of the public’s very limited understanding of truck drivers and the trucking industry, along with the obsession in Congress over getting re-elected, 98% of the focus of debate regarding the trucking industry revolves around logbook rules and grandstanding about making the highways safer. Congress, along with many trucking industry insiders, are claiming victory regarding the effectiveness of the new logbook rules that came out several years ago. I disagree with the conclusion that it’s the new logbook rules that have made things safer on the highways and I’ll explain why. Let’s take a closer look at some of the myths out there and bring to light some important facts that paint a much different picture of what’s really going on, and where we should go from here.
Get Those Sleepy Drivers Off The Road
Getting sleepy truck drivers off the road is always the focus of national trucking debates. It’s so overplayed it’s ridiculous. It’s like the group Boston – if you listen to the radio, you’d think the only song they ever wrote was “More Than A Feeling”. I love the group, and I feel they have at least twenty songs I like much better. Well I drove for many years with the old logbook rules and more recently with the newer ones and I feel the older ones were actually safer. Why? Mainly because they permitted flexibility with the sleeper berth rules, allowing you to take naps during the day and still get your miles in safely and legally. The new rules make your day a 14 hour marathon without regard to your schedule or sleeping preferences. But the highways are getting safer according to crash statistics. So what gives?
Tighter Enforcement Making Highways Safer
That’s right, the logbook rules are being enforced far more effectively now than in the past. The combination of using Qualcomm’s GPS tracking as an enforcement measure, the increased use of electronic logbooks, and more truck inspections out on the highways have made it much, much harder to cheat the system nowadays than it was in the past. And I would know, I was pretty much a “cowboy” back in the day. I was always very safe, with 1.5 million safe miles under my belt, but logbook rules – well, I really didn’t care much about that. I mostly wrote down whatever I felt like writing down and drove when I felt I could safely drive. In fact, almost all of us did.
If you were sitting down in a truck stop or at the docks and heard a driver talking about the hours they had available to drive, you knew they had to be a rookie. Nobody else really cared about that. Only rookies hadn’t figured out that you make up your day however you see fit and write down whatever looks good in the book. You ran hard when the miles were available, and wrote down in the logbook whatever would get you by. Well, not everybody has the judgement necessary to govern themselves, and this practice lead to a lot of accidents.
Better Safety Statistics In Recent Years
Fast forward to today and you’ll find that it’s incredibly difficult to cheat the current system and far fewer drivers are doing so. That, my friends, is why the safety statistics are showing steady improvement, not because the logbook rules are better rules. I love the 34 hour reset I must say, but the 14 hour rule needs to go in the garbage. I feel it’s more dangerous to force somebody to work for 14 straight hours every day than it is to let them work the schedule that suits them safely each day. Some days you really just need a nap for an hour or two and you’re feeling great! In fact, I felt that way most days – I love me a nap! But the new laws make this a difficult thing to do anymore – you just don’t have the time.
Brenda Neville, President of the Iowa Motor Truck Association (IMTA), an ATA affiliate, spoke recently to a panel at an FMCSA listening session and said:
“The truck-involved fatality rate has reached an all-time low under the current Hours of Services rules. These are good rules that allow drivers to gain quality rest.” – Brenda Neville, President of the Iowa Motor Truck Association
Neville asked FMCSA to enhance the rules by adding flexibility to the sleeper berth provision, which would improve motor carrier safety and promote overall driver health by encouraging naps, shorter continuous driving periods and a more natural sleep approach:
“Greater flexibility would also help reduce highway congestion and promote operational flexibility. These important factors would have a positive impact beyond just the trucking industry.” – Brenda Neville, President of the Iowa Motor Truck Association
The Most Recent Federal Safety Statistics
The most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) indicate that:
- The truck-involved fatality rate in 2008 declined 12.3 percent to 1.86 per 100 million miles, from 2.12 per 100 million miles in 2007. This decline marks the largest year-to-year drop ever and the fifth consecutive year the fatality rate has dropped.
- Persons injured in large truck crashes went from 44.4 per 100 million miles to 39.6, an 11 percent reduction.
- Since the new HOS regulations took effect in 2005, the rate of persons injured in large truck crashes has dropped 25 percent and the truck-involved fatality rate has dropped 22 percent.
- The fatality rate is at its lowest since the DOT began keeping those records in 1975 and has dropped 66 percent since that time.
So clearly progress is being made and everyone has to be happy with that. Personally, I feel that combining the old sleeper berth rules with the newer 34 hour reset, while keeping strict enforcement, would be the best path to safety while increasing efficiency within the trucking industry and on our highways at the same time. So I agree with Brenda Neville with regard to the highways being safer now than ever before, but I don’t believe it’s because of the new logbook rules. I believe our highways are safer due to stricter enforcement, in spite of the glaring flaw in the current logbook rules.
Ok, Now You’re In Charge
I just got the ok from the Feds to allow you to rewrite the logbook rules any way you see fit! Ok, that was about as honest as my logbook back in ’95. But what if you could? Put your best ideas in the comment section below and let’s see what kind of rules we come up with. Here’s mine:
- 70 hour rule stays the same
- 34 hour reset rule stays the same
- 14 hour rule goes in the garbage
- Go back to old rules: 10 hours on, 8 hours off, allowing split sleeper berth – minimum 2 hours in each sleeping period
- Continue allowing DOT to match the Qualcomm GPS with a driver’s logbook
- Enforce the use of electronic logbooks nationwide
So there you have it. Yap, I’ve stepped on my own toes by allowing increased enforcement and electronic logs, but as long as I can take a nap when I want to then all is right with the world from my perspective! Now jot down your rules below!
With teams running 24/7 it is very difficult for them to get companies to allow time with the truck stopped. A rolling reset means the truck hardly ever stops; but it is essential for the health of the drivers to have a break with the trucks stopped to be able to eat REAL food at least once a day, get exercise if just a bit of a walk, and maybe get a shower more than once a WEEK.
To get companies to allow for this time,I think that 2 hours within every 24hr – or 1hr per 10hr reset, be taken with the truck stopped.
An interesting point and I agree – you have to get out of the truck from time to time for sure. I don't think you could really mandate by law that drivers (teams or solos) actually stop and get out of the truck. The current laws may pretty much mandate that a team must stop the truck at some point during the day and that's gotta be a welcome relief – however brief it might be. I'd like to hear more from team drivers and how the newer laws compare with the older ones.
As a team driver we never run out of hours to run legal but the only good sleep we get is when the truck is stopped for awhile for whatever reason. When time off comes after being out 2 or 3 weeks Im too tired to enjoy it most times.
If the statistics on hwy safety came from the Feds I have no faith in them. I believe they would alter the numbers to enhance their assertions that the new rules work. I would rather see statistics on the percentage of truck/auto accidents that were caused by the car. I believe historically the % is higher on autos being at fault. Are those numbers still the same today? Also I do not agree in the use satellite tracking or paperless logs. Maybe I am old fashion but I would rather not give up that part to a computer. I believe that gives too much info to people that should not have it. I prefer the old HOS regs. They changed to the new ones just for the sake of change, that is never a good reason for change.
Thanks Robert!
Yeah, maybe you're a bit old fashioned. I make my living with technology now (web developer) but I was quite anxious over technological changes like auto transmissions and electronic logs. Turns out the auto transmissions are great, and paperless logs aren't so bad. But the days of getting away with running multiple logbooks and 1000 mile runs overnight are about coming to a close. They have so much technology and enforcement now that the vast majority of drivers are going to be running legal most of the time. The government knows everything we do now – and I don't just mean truck drivers. And the unfortunate part is that privacy is gone and it'll never come back – you can't turn back the clock on technology. So it's a new era for our world, and that includes the trucking world. Us old-schoolers will struggle a bit with the stringent oversight, but once we give in and decided we'll just have to run legal, the rest falls into place. Oh well – goodbye old days, and goodbye to all of my logbooks
You CAN still take a nap when you deem it necessary under the new rules with the 14 hour rule. You just will end up doing fewer miles and having to make do with less.
Well I know you can take a nap, but the point is that you will lose a portion of your working day doing it. With the old rules you could split the sleeper berth time, get your nap in, and still get your miles in safely. Now you either take a nap or get delayed at the customer and you can wind up runing out of driving time even though you've been in bed sleeping.
Exactly right! And the new rules are less safe because of that. I trained at KLLM with a "professional" driver. He knew I did not sleep that day and still insisted that I should drive even when after 9 or 10 hours in I'm literally falling asleep at the wheel.
KLLM also discouraged split sleeper berth for team drivers, which is stupid. If you need a two hour nap you need one! I agree with you that the new rules are less safe with the 14 hour rule! That needs to GO!
I thought the 10 hour break was great as it allowed me to get 8 hours of sleep and still allow for time for personal needs such as showers, etc. I would not have a problem with split sleeper being allowed if it was TRULY VOLUNTARY on the part of the driver. However some motor carriers practically compelled drivers to split their sleeper berth.
Well, whatever the rules are, trucking companies are going to expect drivers to abide by them but get the most productivity they can out of the truck at the same time. It's up to the driver to schedule the way he/she would like to get the job done. Whether or not you drive is always voluntary, but whether or not your company continues to give you good runs and good miles is also voluntary on their part. So the drivers that are the most reliable, safe, and productive overall are making their company the most money and are going to get the best runs and the best miles overall.
I think a good backstop to the current HOS would be a cap on the miles a driver is allowed to run daily. Such as a maximum of 400 miles per day up to a maximum of 2000 miles per week.
Why would you want to put a cap/limit on how much a driver can drive? The whole point of us doing what we do is to drive as much as we legally/physically can. While I agree that I am not a fan of the new HOS rules, I think that they are there for not only our safety, but the safety of the other motorists we share the roads with. The reason most of the "cowboy" truk drivers don't like the new rules is that they can't bend the rules to play the system how they want. I am all for having electronic logbooks and qualcomm gps tracking. If you have nothing to hide and are staying legal, you should have nothing to worry about.
Dale, I don't want to offend you but where did you come from? You may have everything paid off or don't have a family or something to make a comment like that. what you propose wouldn't pay my mortgage payment. not only that how would freight get delivered?? the economy would fall into a greater depression than that of the 1920's you might want to reitterate your method of thinking there driver!!!!!
I agree some what with the idea of a cap but not a number so low, I feel if there were a cap it should be 770 miles a day. Thats 77mph at ten hours or 70 mph for 11 hrs, that should be plenty for every day, and the weekly cap??? NOPE!!! If you can drive 770 miles a day then GOOD for you,
I don't believe that there should be a cap. If you cap us out then your limited on the amount of money you're able to make. I believe that if the hours stay the same. If something should be done In my opinion should never of allowed the use of qualcom or any gps tracking devise. I try to stay as legal as I most possibly can but running a reefer sometimes just isn't feasible especialy when you have produce that has a very short shelf life. And the government wants to put a lot of these loads on the rail as well as other loads, so the railroad can join in the vast majority of revenue, or should I say most?
Ok, I understand about the 14 hour rule. Why did the 15 hour rule get nixed. We should go back to 13 hours driving, with a break ( nap) when we need one. Min two hours. Keep the 70 hrs in seven days with the 36 hr reset. It takes that long to have a visit anyway. No one says you have to drive that much , but it sure comes in handy when you are driving the desert or open prairie trying to go from a to b. It sure would be nice to see the speed limit get set at seventy five miles per hour. Sure slow it down in the populated areas, even 55, but once your out of the city, lets roll.
I don't believe that we should go back to the 10-8 rules, I do agree however that the 14 hr clock needs to be put in file 13. I have made more money on the new hours of service than I have on the old hours. You just have to know how to opperate your day. EXTENDING is the key word here. A lot of drivers today don't know that if you take an 8 hour break, it extends your 14 hrs. so you can split without having issues. A lot of companies don't allow drivers to split because they have issues in understanding how to do just that. Also companies aren't explaining that a drivers 14 hour clock resets after 10 hours even if it falls in the same day. I have used that many a time and was infact legal in driving well over 800 miles in 1 day. It just chews your 70 up real fast. Companies don't like the fact of driving that amount of miles in a day. But it is legal…
Basically, trucking companies do not care how you do your log book as long as it "looks" legal. At the orientation at KLLM Transport the safety guy gave us a strong hint. "We do loose leaf logbooks for a reason." What that reason was he didn't say. But we all know the reason. Rewrite your logbook as you go along to match your gps within 2 hours, etc.
That is why there are still accidents with drivers too tired to be on the road. The new system is not safer. It's just more strictly enforced. The drivers with the most miles are those who are best at manipulating their logs and their driving time with their wait times, etc. Companies know it is impossible to make good money and drive completely legal. That's a given.
If you actually want to drive completely legal, you're in for a hard time.
Charlie