Safety Advocates Crying Foul About the 34 Hour Restart Provision
Apparently the so called safety advocates over the trucking industry are crying foul about the 34 hour restart change. They are claiming that drivers may be able to work up to as much as 82 hours a week and that will increase the chance for truck related accidents.
If these people were qualified to have a voice in the industry they may actually know how to do math, factoring it in it would add up to 84 hours in a 7 day period. They seem to lack the understanding that an 82 (as they see it) hour work week is far different for an OTR driver than it is for a local driver. OTR drivers don't have a commute to work cutting into rest periods that local drivers have. OTR drivers often get rest breaks while being loaded and unloaded that local drivers can't get unless they have a sleeper bunk on their truck, of course that depends on the type of trucking a driver does. Pulling a dry box or reefer trailer may involve lumping services, so a driver doesn't need to work the load. Where as some tankers and flatbed trucking require a driver to perform duties other than driving. Of course they have overlooked the fact that everybody is different, some drivers have more endurance than other drivers and can more adequately handle longer work weeks without risk to safety.
The point is that they want to make the rules and decisions to what will equate to safer roads in America, but they want to bundle everyone into one category to make it easiest for them as opposed to looking at the different aspects of the industry. The greatest tools for safety in the FMCSR is:
§ 392.3: Ill or fatigued operator. No driver shall operate a commercial motor vehicle, and a motor carrier shall not require or permit a driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle, while the driver's ability or alertness is so impaired, or so likely to become impaired, through fatigue, illness, or any other cause, as to make it unsafe for him/her to begin or continue to operate the commercial motor vehicle. However, in a case of grave emergency where the hazard to occupants of the commercial motor vehicle or other users of the highway would be increased by compliance with this section, the driver may continue to operate the commercial motor vehicle to the nearest place at which that hazard is removed.
§ 396.7: Unsafe operations forbidden. (a) General. A motor vehicle shall not be operated in such a condition as to likely cause an accident or a breakdown of the vehicle. (b) Exemption. Any motor vehicle discovered to be in an unsafe condition while being operated on the highway may be continued in operation only to the nearest place where repairs can safely be effected. Such operation shall be conducted only if it is less hazardous to the public than to permit the vehicle to remain on the highway.
These 2 laws combined with the new anti coercion law is all a the authority a driver needs to to maintain road safety on his/her part when it comes to hours of service.
Safety has always been the responsibility of the driver, not the FMCSA, not the trucking company, and definitely not the so called safety advocates. It's the drivers responsibility because only the driver knows his/her abilities and the environment in which he/she is operating their truck. All too often I talk to drivers and get the response that they need an e-log to get their dispatcher under control and my response to that is NO, all you need is a backbone to get your dispatcher under control. E-logs won't make any difference when you are too sick or tired to drive, but yet the dispatcher will expect you to run as long as you have hours, regardless of how you feel. Know the law, know how to communicate and stand up for yourself. Appointments can be changed much easier than accidents can be dealt with, and the dispatcher is not the one driving the truck, you are, it's your call, not theirs. As for the the so called trucking safety advocates, they can cry all they want, they have no business trying to rally against the trucking industry when they have very limited knowledge about trucking and what it means to be a truck driver in the United States. They can't even do proper math.