On August 14, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the government agency tasked with regulating the U.S. trucking industry, announced its long-awaited proposal for updating current Hours of Service (HOS) rules to increase driver flexibility, while maintaining safety. For many, these proposed changes are seen as a welcome compromise following the ELD mandate which took effect in late 2017.
In a recent Freightvine episode, co-hosts Chris Caplice and Inam Iyoob shared their thoughts on proposed HOS rule changes, including which ones have the biggest potential to impact shippers and drivers. The following is a transcript of that discussion. (Prefer to listen? Jump to 25:00 of the episode titled “30 Years with the World’s Largest Retailer (Part 2) | Chris Sultemeier” on the Freightvine podcast.)
Chris Caplice: Before we sign off, I think there’s one other thing that we should probably talk about…and that’s the current proposed changes to the hours of service rules that were proposed by the [Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)]. I think there are a handful of changes here in this, but the big ones – the two big ones in my opinion – are one, the modification to the sleeper-berth exception to allow drivers to split their 10-hour off-duty hours into two periods, with one at least seven hours and the other at least two hours. (So you have like an eight and two, or seven and three.) And then the second big proposed rule change, is allowing an off-duty break of 30 minutes to 3 hours that pauses the driver’s 14-hour window. But the driver still has to take 10 consecutive hours off-duty at the end of it. So the FMCSA is claiming that these proposed changes are meant to both improve safety and increase operational flexibility. These could be some big changes. So Inam, what do you think? Do you think there’ll be an impact?
Inam Iyoob: I think so, I think they did the right thing. I think, you know, initially the rules were there, people were bending the rules and then the ELDs came in to kind of enforce it correctly. But then, of course, the complaints came about, you know, productivity loss and all of that stuff. But I think the intent is good. They have increased the flexibility with the changes that they have given; however, I think what may be important to watch is to see how it is actually getting implemented. For example, the second rule that you are talking about, you know, is it going to force the driver to actually work 17 hours? Because the potential three hours they are going to pull over their truck and wait – for example, running in traffic or something – that time period they’re not going to get paid. So, that’s a concern I think many drivers have but of course there is an opposite argument to that. If you are stuck in traffic, you are not moving so you are not getting paid anyway. So, I think there is always mixed emotions about it, but I think what will be interesting to see is how the companies are implementing this. Are they actually building this into routes? Scheduling these breaks in congested areas? And so forth.
Caplice: Yeah, it’s an interesting point because you know these log books were pretty much fudged left and right and [were] very flexible before the ELDs came. ELDs kind of swung the pendulum and made it very rigid, this seems to be moving the pendulum back again – allowing some kind of flexibility, but still trying to maintain some structure. I agree with you, I think it’s going to provide more benefits, certainly to the shippers, because it will give them some more flexibility. But I think to the drivers as well.
Iyoob: I think so too. At the end of the day, it will work itself out. There is the [added] flexibility, and at least we know they are moving in the right direction to compensate.
Caplice: Yeah. I hear so many horror stories about a driver hitting the city and they have four hours left in their 10 hours and they’re stuck. They’re just going to watch their hours go away as they sit in traffic versus being able to pull out. Now, will that have as much savings as some people are saying? I mean, some people are claiming it’s going to be $270 million in efficiency savings. I don’t know, we’ll see how that goes. And I know some drivers are opposed to it, but the OOIDA (the owner operators association), I think they’re pro; they’ve proposed some of the changes. Same thing you can say for ATA and ATRI. You know, we’ll see how this shakes out. The 45-day discussion period, is I think, on us now. We’ll have to see what this is and we’ll have a future podcast [episode] focusing on this.
Like Chris mentioned, most people have responded positively to the proposed HOS rule changes. What do you think? If enacted, do you think the changes will be more favorable to shippers or drivers? What’s the likelihood of the changes being implemented?
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