Reply #4: The 'new' OOS rules have been in effect for over two years now [View All]

[Ikonoklast]

The FMCSA has re-instated them as an interim measure while another legal challenge wends its' way through the court system. The rule-making methodology was challenged, not actually the rules themselves. The science used to study fatigue and rest cycles of the drivers is sound.

PATT, CRASH, Public Citizen, the Teamsters and other advocacy groups have sued the FMCSA each time there has been a rule change, for various reasons, mostly technical in nature as to how the rules have been allowed to be commented on before being put into force, and the methodology used to verify the studies behind driver health and fatigue. Some of these groups have sued the FMCSA over studies that they themselves conducted and were used by the federal agency, which baffled a lot of people.

I think they are wrong on this issue, as new crash and fatality studies have come into play. I believe that there has only been one fatality recorded due to fatigue in the eleventh hour of driving in the last eighteen months. It is actually more dangerous in the very first hour of driving, as that is statistically the time, on a percentage basis, most accidents occur.

The 'new' rules allow me drive eleven hours a day, be 'on duty' for a total of fourteen hours a day ('on duty' means any combination of driving and loading/unloading, fueling, etc.) then take a mandatory ten hour break. I am allowed the exact same amount of hours to work in a seven-day week as before (70), but get an hours 're-set' after thirty-four continuous hours off. Once I start my day, however, I cannot stop the clock from ticking down those fourteen hours. If I start my day at 0600, I have to be parked by 2000.

I like these rules. They make far more sense than the old ones; they aren't perfect, but they do work. I get more rest than under the old rules (only a mandated eight hour break; try getting dinner, a shower, some personal time and some sleep all in eight hours every night, or morning as the case may be) and would hate to go back to them.

The Teamsters know that if the OOS change back to the old system, it means companies would have to hire more help as the outdated rules really impinged the movement of freight. It doesn't have anything to do with safety; that is a smokescreen as the old work rules were actually less safe to work under.

The FMCSA will get sued again no matter what, and was sued under Clinton as well. It will be sued under the next Democratic president. Some of these groups have totally unreasonable goals, and will sue when the next set of rules come forth, no matter what they are. They have already told the FMCSA that they are going to do so.

That's just stupidity, and has cost taxpayers millions.