Dec 30, 2003 By Josh Krysak 6 min read

Many area truck drivers and motor carrier companies are bracing for new federal regulations that probably will force them to put more tractor-trailers on the roads and may force some smaller operators out of business. And one area trucking company owner said the new regulations will cause a hefty rise in prices for consumer goods after the carriers and shippers adjust to the new system.

“It is going to cost the consumer in the pocketbook big bucks, maybe as high as 20 percent, all in transportation costs. It is going to change the way we do business,” said Phillip Holt, owner of GNH Trucking Co. in Markleysburg.

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the new regulations stipulate that a truck driver may drive no more than 11 hours per shift after 10 consecutive hours off duty; however, the maximum driving time per day will be reduced from 16 hours to 14, and the minimum rest per 24 hours will rise from eight hours to 10.

The current rule allows 10 hours of driving within a 15-hour on-duty period after eight hours of off-duty time. Also, drivers may not drive after their 15th hour on duty in a workday or after 60 hours on duty in seven consecutive days or 70 hours on duty in eight consecutive days.

The new regulations take effect Sunday.

According to Andy Beck, director of public relations for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the new regulations will reduce the risk of driver fatigue and translate into fewer accidents involving tractor-trailers.

“The new rules are a real improvement and are more in line with reducing driver fatigue and in line with the body’s circadian rhythms,” Beck said. Circadian rhythms refer to the body’s natural sleep cycle. “Even when a driver is at a loading dock, there is still fatigue.”

Bill Blaney, owner of Blaney Farms Inc., said he has yet to determine how much the new laws will cost his company, which operates 42 trucks in the Perryopolis-Uniontown area.

“It is a major concern for all of us,” Blaney said.

Blaney said regional hauling will be hit the hardest by the new laws, and regional hauling is his 27-year company’s main source of income.

He called the regulation changes a further “detriment to safety” because truckers will be able to drive for 11 hours instead of 10, and overall, companies will take a hit with new consecutive-hours restrictions.

The trucking operators also are concerned about new mandates that will require drivers to calculate time spent waiting at loading docks as on-duty time, something that was not applicable in the past.

Turner said it will affect GNH Trucking greatly, as well as carriers nationwide, because the new laws will force haulers to bill shippers for “detention” time, because drivers technically will be “working” under the new regulations when they sit and wait at docks to be loaded or unloaded.

Holt said his major shippers – Clorox, Home Depot and Gabriel Brothers – will have to pay “detention” time for drivers who have to wait. While he already has negotiated detention pay for his drivers, most companies have not, he said, and that will drive up hauling prices.

His chief dispatcher, Craig Turner agreed: “One time or another, everything you see is hauled.”

According to Rick Sivick, an auditor from Safety Concern Inc. in Maryland, the new regulations will cut productivity and force small and large companies to hire more drivers.

The real sticking point of the regulation change is the number of consecutive hours permitted daily, according to Sivick. The old regulations stated that 15 hours of on-duty time were permitted per day without having to be consecutive.

Sivick, who checks the logs for GNH, said that in the past a driver could drive for four hours and then wait to be unloaded for another four hours and then drive again with only four hours of on-duty time logged. Doing so would constitute eight on-duty hours under the new laws, a change that will affect productivity and even driver’s earnings, which often are determined by the number of miles traveled and the loads delivered.

“Once a driver starts his day, if he can’t split his day, he is screwed,” Turner said.

Still, the FMCSA said the new regulations are needed to curtail further loss of life along America’s roadways.

Beck said this rewrite of the regulations is the first in 60 years, is a result of 53,000 public comments and is in line with the intent of the U.S. Congress.

According to Beck, the total cost to society for motor-carrier-related accidents tops $4 billion annually, which includes emergency services and loss of productivity.

He said that while motor carrier companies are concerned about hiring more drivers to compensate for the loss of driving hours under the new regulations, if the companies would meet the new standards to full compliance, 48,000 fewer drivers would be needed.

He estimated that if compliance with the new regulations remains on par with current compliance levels, the industry will put an additional 84,300 trucks on the road, something trucking companies said they can’t afford and something they think will cause even more accidents.

Holt said his fleet of 45 trucks has had very few accidents over the years and has never been involved in a fatal accident. While the new regulations are going to invoke a severe change in the carrier business, overall the outcome could be positive, he added.

“The time a driver has been sitting at the dock will be shown as part of his 14-hour day, and it will be easier on the driver,” Holt said. “I think it will improve the quality of life for the driver.”

Beck said 1,326 crashes this year were due to driver fatigue, and once the new regulations are in place, as many as 75 lives will be spared. Officials estimate the trucking industry will spend $1.3 billion to implement the new regulations.

“Safety is the top transportation priority for the Bush administration,” Beck said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that each year 100,000 crashes, which result in 71,000 injures and more than 1,500 fatalities, are caused by driver fatigue, accounting for 1.6 percent of all accidents and 3.6 of all fatal crashes.

And a 1990 National Transportation Safety Board study of 182 heavy truck accidents that were fatal to the driver showed that 31 percent of the accidents involved driver fatigue.

By 1995, a sample of 107 fatal truck accidents found that 58 percent of the crashes were fatigue related. The study revealed that 19 of the 107 drivers said they fell asleep while driving.

In 1997, truck-related deaths reached 5,398, and in 1999 the U.S. Congress created the FMCSA to help to curtail the rising death toll. The new regulations are the result of many studies and meetings concerning the existing motor carrier regulations.