A new report from the Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General has found that there isn’t a “net benefit” to the controversial 34-hour restart rule restrictions. While the report has not yet been released to the public, it could very well be the fatal blow that finally puts down the 34-hour restart restrictions for good.
Two provisions were added to the 34-hour restart rule as part of the 2013 Hours of Service changes. The provisions required that when drivers wanted to ‘restart’ the clock on a new week, their 34-hour break had to include two periods between 1am and 5am, and that a restart could only be taken once per 168 hours.
The changes faced harsh criticism from truckers, carriers, and other industry groups. Though they were touted as safety measures, truckers argued that the provisions weren’t based on any hard science and that they would actually make motorists less safe.
Congress listened to the industry’s concerns and suspended both provisions in 2014 pending review. They ordered the FMCSA to conduct a study into the actual impact that the provisions would have on drivers.
Now that the study is complete, the Inspector General wrote a letter to DOT Secretary Elaine Chao, and members of the House and Senate Subcommittees on Transportation. The letter provides little detail other than the background on the study, but did share that “the study did not explicitly identify a net benefit from the use of the two suspended provisions…”
Once the study has been published for public viewing, more details will likely be available. Even without the full results however, trucking groups are already celebrating.
David Heller, VP of Governmental Affairs for the Truckload Carriers Association claimed that the report just confirmed “what the industry has been saying all along.” The Trucking Alliance called the results “a win for the industry.” The ATA called the whole ordeal “long and unnecessary.”
“It’s not only common sense, it’s trucker sense,” said OOIDA executive vice president Todd Spencer according to Overdrive. “We have always championed the need for flexibility in the hours-of-service regulations so that drivers can drive when rested and avoid times of heavy congestion or bad weather conditions.”
Source: truckinginfo, gobytrucknews, overdrive, overdrive, DOT, OIG
I am grateful when I get a 34 hour reset most of the time we work off of recaps.There has been times when I work 25 or more days straight,I start to get burned out,you should have to take at least one 34hour reset every 14 days.You can still make good income and get that 1solid day off.
So because of your inability to tell mommy and daddy / “your Company” your tired and need a day off, you want the government to tell them for you? Unlike you, I know when I’m tired and I know when I need to take time off. Never had a company tell me no. Time to grow up kiddo.
Exactly ..Any idiot knows when he’s tired and needs rest .. Further ..Being told I have to shut down when I I have ..Say 60 miles left to my destination is just plain stupid ..That 60 covered at the end of the shift is better driven THEN ..Than in the morning when traffic systems are at their worst ..Just goes to show ..Idiot bureaucrats know NOTHING ..In fact the whole HOS system needs to go ..Along with the ELDs ..Sick of the government implying we are too stupid to figure this out on our own …”let’s do another study” …BS!
Canada has that requirement.
If you Want a day off, you should be able to have one.
I can run my recap having one day off every week. Most weeks I miss 34 by six or ten hours and it has little effect on me as I am home for at least 16 hours per week. That little time at home every week does wonders for personal moral
Prove it with facts not unsubstantiated idiot reasoning . Congress , the Senate legislate , the house appropriates funding. Obviously the same companies who smooz with congress like those with deep pockets initially brought this bulldung to the forefront. Do the research.
Irie, I agree. The large carriers with deep pockets are looking out for their interests. On the other hand it benefits the O/O also. Now let’s see how they do with the terrible rates the middle man are forcing upon the small carriers and O/O. There needs to be regulations and laws on how these people come up with pay out on freight. Them alone with the immigrants that except cheap freight are driving the American born men and women out of the trucking business.
Very nice Irie, also our former President Obama, did what he could and did it very well Anthony.. Thank you
USDOT/FMCSA Reired…
Obama didn’t do one damn thing for the trucking industry and neither did you mr fmcsa reired
That’s rt not nothing.
Yes, Dec. 2014 Obama suspended the law. Congress made the law. Transportation secretary Foxx made the recommendation to President Obama.
Now if we can get rid of the stupid elogs…..
I can live with the e logs. Get rid of the 14hr rule because it is stupid and unsafe and unrealistic. I made $79,000 last year as company driver with paper logs.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/truck-driver-hours-service-rules-modification
So? I made 92,000 as a local company driver on e-logs. What’s that have to do with anything?
If they make a down time, nap or rest credit system this regulation nation nightmare may be workable.
I made 94k on elog running 600 miles a night in a 65 mph truck and slept at home every day
Ha Ha I’d like that job!
Come down to Texas. Oil field work.
Me too. I wish these guys would put the names of these companies so we all can get a chance to make better pay! Why keep it a secret?
I made $123k as a local O/O pulling containers on paper logs and now my first year having to run elogs and I only made $96k. ELOGs don’t make drivers safe keep ’em for the nub’s who can’t draw a line and due basic math and need to be told how to do a legal log. 33 years I’ve been in this industry with 2 million and counting safe miles driven. The last 8 years have been the worse yet with over regulation on the trucking industry. The government needs to roll back HOS to the old 10/8 rules. 9 years till I retire but if they keep piling on more reg’s then it will be an early retirement. These big companies (Swift,JB…etc) are destroying our industry by driving down freight rates by trying to get my contracts and trying to increase insurance minimums on the industry. These companies are self insured so it doesn’t effect them like small independents like me where profit margins are slim already.
I agree, never had a problem with the 10/8 system and being able to split my sleeper. I would shut down during rush hour traffic to avoid the congestion and sleep when I was tired. It’s called planning and preparing. It’s not just on the drivers. Dispatch needs to do better.
I haul compressed an liquid hydrogen mostly the liquid you know that stuff that fuels the space shuttle? I informed my company I had two speeds and if they didn’t like this one they sure wasn’t going to like the other one!! After 40 year I’ve enjoyed bout all I can stand anyway. Gentlemen be careful hope you have a blessed day every day.
Sure you did…..there might be real truck drivers here that might know your fibbing. Ya think?
you didnt do it legally I’ll promise you that
who did you drive for when u made that 79000 dollars?
You can make that locally doing food distribution, working 4 days a week. 12 hour days. You gotta be built for it though.
Elogs are great wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t wanna share the road with anyone who’s been driving 24 hours straight
Dude ..NO ONE drives 24 hours straight .. You’re assuming a false narrative ..
He is not kidding. I know a guy driving for a company in NC right now that drives on paper logs and he is driving 12-15 hours most days and longer on days the company pushes him.
Amen to that. Also quit wasting $$ on trying to limit all trucks to 65 mph. Oh, I forgot. It’s all about $$. Not Safety..
Nothing better than the hypnotising effect of 65 mph in a 80 mph world to help you phase out and show the world the bottom of your truck from a sudden ditch parking.
we can ONLY HOPE
Yesss!!
I make 230k a year at Swift and I’m still in training!
That’s funny!
They should do away with the 14 hr rule as well. At least when we are off duty that clock should stop ticking entirely. How many times do we go through a pre-trip and find out that there is no available load for hour’s and hour’s. Tick, tick, tick that clock goes. We all know if we are rested enough, we are Professional drivers!
We can deleat the pretrip on our qualcomm and it voids the whole start of your 14.
DELETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh you mean Fudge like my loose leaf paper logs I used to run? Would someone refresh my memory what was the reason for Elogs ? OH, now I remember, Ya can’t fudge’em like dem loose leafs !!! This kind of CRAP is why I retired early from Years of OS/OW, RETIRED & LOVEN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s why I wait until I have a load to clock in. I’ll do my Pretrip off the clock and when I get my load information I just wait the 15 min to leave.
Why would you start your clock if you don’t have a load?
Good question!
I think that only happens to you, why would you start your clock for no reason
Well the reason in my a pinion It didn’t stick is It didn’t benefit the ATA but on the other hand ELD’s do and that will.
Mothers against tired truckers had too much influence on the DOT visa Anne Ferro. That woman single handedly handcuffed this industry placing several ridiculous restrictions on it.
The need to have a Mothers against TEXTING CAR DRIVERS… Just saying…
I agree Brandi!!!
I can see both sides of the fence in this topic but that last paragraph was quite strange. Yes it does take a certain mindset and life style to drive but I fall to see how a rule that can and will happen randomly (depending on any one drivers hours) will effectively keep people from driving in bad weather and/or heavy traffic areas.
If you can drive when you want, you can rest during heavy traffic times, and rest during storms. The way it is now you have to drive 11 hours once your clock starts or you lose driving time. You used to could drive and then log off and rest, then drive again you can’t now without losing drive time
You can run using a split sleeper rule and still use your hrs.
Not heavy traffic areas…. Times of heavy congestion. Big difference!
If the 14 hr rule was not in place a driver could stop at a rest area miles from the city during rush hour and then start driving again after rush hour. If you are aware of how the 14 hr rule works this limits how log a driver can stop and rest and still get a full day of driving. DOT does not limit passenger vehicle drivers to these standards. I am now a Correctional Officer at a Prison I work 16 hrs a day 4 days a week and 8 hrs on my Friday, I spend 1 hr driving each direction. How safe am I to myself and other drivers on the road.
WHOA, You should NOT drive home after a 16 hour shift,even if it is only an hour, You NEED a 10hr rest period before you can go home!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT’S JUST NOT SAFE!!! Does anyone detect teeny tiny little bit of sarcasm?
Flexibility! that is the point of that last paragraph. The 14 hour rule is a stupid rule that forces a tired driver to drive. If you don’t understand, do you think a driver would rather sit in traffic or bad weather for hours rather than park and wait it out and then start driving again? That’s what the 14 hour rule does, the clock never stops once you start your shift, so it does not matter if you are driving or parked, the clock keeps ticking, which is why driver will drive tired rather than take a break.
You are absolutely right about the 14 hour rule-it forces drivers to drive tired in most cases.
I was driving OTR for 4 months untill a Fedex drove off the road and sideswiped me. The double whipped and caught the back of my trailer a foot and a half in. Thought I’d been hit by a train as it ripped one side of trailer off. Driver had only been on duty 5 hours. It really boils down to driver responsibility And you see less and less of that. Just look on the side f the interstates at all the trucks involved in single vehical accident
So this pretty much means that we will go back to the old rule, having to take full 7 days off to restart our 70… This is goin to hurt a Lot of drivers that… They should leave the 34he rule, for this benefits start in a new 70 in 34 and not in 7 days…
Sounds like you are clueless to the old rule. I hope you are observing road signs.
Whoa Joe, apparently you weren’t even alive during the old 10/8 rule or just clueless.
Great news!! Never understood why there was a 168 hr provision and the dual 5 AM provision was too restrictive.
I can’t stand Obama and I’m glad he is gone but he also said that the two restarts between 1 and 5 is not a good idea Ave he didn’t think it would be good for the industry as motoring public. So there he did stand up for us.
Now, if they would only modify the 14 HR rule to provide for drivers that may be feeling I’ll! I refuse to drive when I’m tired and it takes more than a 30 minute break to relax enough. If I lie down to relax and fall asleep for 2 or 3 hrs it’s fine as long as I haven’t taken time to load or unload. If so, I’m pretty much screwed on available driving time.
My, as well as others, have only one other option drive fatigued or be late. That isn’t good for anyone!
Look I’ve been driving over 25 yrs. I love the 34hr restart! I hate the 14 hr rule. I am a person who likes to take rest breasy. I have always driven 5-7 hrs and went back and took a nap. I consider myself one of the safest on the road. I still have to make on time deliveries. Let me decide when I’m tired. I hate Elogs telling me when to get up and when to go to bed. I am in meat and produce. It is different than other more predictably timed freight. Most of the time I back in , tell how I want it loaded then go to bed.. I know when I’m tired. It may take me 10 hrs to load 4-6 pics in Salinas CA. but any smart produce hauler grabs as much sleep as they can while waiting to load. I am fresh and ready to roll once loaded.
What’s the difference between e-logs and paper?
I’m in the same boat Deb and totally agree with you. Fortunately I don’t have elogs yet. When I do have to get it, I don’t understand how a machine is going to say I’m tired. Because of the nature of our business, cat naps are important in being safe. For me, anyways. I too take advantage of the loading times in the sleeper. Produce and meat are normally time sensitive loads. God forbid if your late. LOL..
Tim, your problem is not the e-logs, it’s the 14 hour rule. the 14 hour rule turns an honest person such as you, into an liar. The reason paper logs allow you to take cat napes is because you can rewrite our logs at the end to extend your day. However, if you had e-logs, without the 14 hour rule, you could run legal, take as many cat naps as you’d like. When are truckers going to get through their heads that the enemy is the 14 hour rule, not the e-logs. STOP WAISTING YOUR TIME FIGHTING THE E-LOGS, AND FIGHT THE 14 HOUR RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’d bet there’s a couple million other drivers out there that consider themselves “one of the safest on the road” too. Someone’s fibbing. Lol
The safety issue is not driver related. It’s aggressive company and shipper related.
Drivers don’t go without sleep or safety on some “evil crazy drivers dreams to kill his/herself”
They get reckless and sleep deprived by companies who see no snow, no ice, no traffic and no delays in their shipping and profit aspirations.
also most companies figure the drive time between stops on practical miles, zip code to zip code as the crow flies, usually ending up much shorter than the actual route you have to travel to get there, also the time lost running through mountains and hills. There are very few dispatchers that really know how to schedule loads from pick up to delivery correctly. I’ve been driving O.T.R. going on 34 yrs now and have been very lucky, I’ve never had any accidents or any violations on my record and there’s only been a hand full of times where i couldn’t or didn’t make my loads on-time, because of blow outs or breakdowns, or having to sit for hrs at the docks waiting to get loaded or unloaded, when an appointment is scheduled and booked these companies should be held by some kind of regulations that require them to keep there end of the load also. it all goes smooth and flows even if everyone evolved does there part from start to stop. I really don’t have any problem with the 14 hr rule,you have 11 hrs to drive in 14 hr day, so with break and fuel stop you still have 2 hrs to play with during your day.most people stop within there first 8 hrs to eat,drink or relieve there self anyway, so the .50 min break in the first 8 hrs isn’t a problem , then once a day i stop for fuel , usually logging .50 for that. i still have time to run my full 11 and if i get drowsy i stop and take an hr nap and hit it again, to me 15-30 minutes isn’t enough any more, guess I’m getting old, and i still have another hr so if i need to stop again i can, allowing me to run until my 11 or 14 is out, I tend to run s lot of open long stretch areas that hasn’t got a lot of places to shut down, so i may run full 11 hrs or i may run 8-10, just depends on were I’m at and going to be when i end my day. Take the little extra time to plan your trip, instead of just hitting it and running hard trying to make it, if you know your route and stops before your even there you can know how hard or slow you’ll have to run each day, if planned right you should never have to run all out, all the time, unless your one that like to sit in the casinos or truck stops and waste your time, then realize your not going to have time to make it,lol. drivings been good to me all these years, but times are changing and it’s so simple , we either accept the changes and learn to live with them or we can quite and work in a restaurant or factory, i don’t know about any of the rest of you but I’m going to adapt and do what i have to do to keep my office with a ever changing view.were else can you get paid the money a driver can make? that is if you have the experience and a safe clean background.
You drivers. Off and on since 93 here. You drivers – keep bitching and arguing so you can work more hours per day for less money. More hours per work for less money. To have less of a normal work day, week and life. Why does this work force not fall under Labor Laws ie time and one half over forty ? Other real professional occupations – work 40 hours a week, and from their employers earn PTO, have 401k with company match, paid vacations, and good affordable health insurance.
I have all of that except for overtime. I don’t want to be paid money that the government forces my employer to pay me. It’s coercion and I’m not into it. I agreed to an amount of money per work produced, I produce that work, I get that money. Simple.
The 34hr restart has never helped to keep anyone rested. It’s just a frustrating and unnecessary restriction. I don’t agree with this administration dismantling our entire system in favor of big business but at least this also benefits the little guy.
I don’t know about you but i like having a day off…..34 hr restart keeps companies from working you 7 days a week. So unless you don’t burn out your 70 and limit your days to 10 hrs a day….. you can keep rolling everyday without a 34.
I’m out here to make as much money as possible before automation makes our jobs obsolete. If I want a break I can request time off. Not once have I been happy to be sitting at a truck stop for 34 hours instead of making money.
How does a 10 hour day help? Still leaves you stuck with no hours on the 8th day. If you want to roll with no restart, you can’t with more than an average of 8.75 hours per day. That’s not enough time to make my appointments.
Obama had nothing to do with the writing of these rules. It was congress. But that ain’t gonna change how your racist mind works. So believe what you want Anthony.
Anthony I say AMEN TO THAT
Let us HOPE with the new sheriff in town things start making sense and start to help what’s WRONG WITH THETRUCKING
I only wonder if, had Ferro not been kicked out, her next item would have been going after shippers and receivers for excessive dock wait times…..
Yes please let me decide when I’m sleepy
Nice to see the INDUSTRY is happy. I say limit trucks to 110 m.p.h. and forbid drivers from sleeping at all. They should work 24 hours a day.- Charles
Trucking companies are why so many rules are imposed. The way they pay or penalize a driver and how they push the limits of people and machines to make profits is why trucking industry is now 300,000 drivers short.
People are sick of living in their trucks, sick of the blame for what the companies screw up. Sick of regulation nation.
it’s not the companies, it’s the companies insurance companies that bring on all these rules. Do you think these companies want you to sit around waiting for time to restart another day, or sit for restart to gain another 70, there in it to make money also, if possible they would allow us to run as fast or long as we could to turn more loads making them richer. but some drivers don’t have the common sense any more to know when enough is enough so accidents do happen, raising insurance rates through, loss loads,equipment and lives, you every one calling every one “driver” all the time any more, I do But I’m not. any one can get behind the wheel and drive, but to do it right and safe you not only drive your rig, you operate it. I consider myself as a operator, not a driver. How many times have you seen someone trying to back into basically a straight shot spot or dock, over steering or under steering every time,when your an operator you set yourself for the back. i’ve been in shipping yards before that i had to drive almost a mile or so to the back of them to load , twisting and turning around stuff through tight turns that most couldn’t do going forward, just to get back there and find out my load is in another spot and there’s only one way out, in reverse. it sucks but that shows the true difference between a driver and a operator.
Remember the good old days, when we would have to fake a breakdown to get a few days off. In about 1969 my co-driver and I logged 68 days in the cab of our PB coe. We were with Harland Transport out of Detroit and commonly spent in excess of two months with nothing more than sitting through loading time. Loading time, of course was considered time off.
I’ve never had a problem with the 14 hour rule.
My problem is with poor load planning.
Vendor A orders 20 trailers for a major shipment. Broker B assigns 20 trucks to all show up at 8am (plant only has 3-4 docks!) last loaded truck leaves at 5pm, but not all trucks are loaded, some have to wait until tomorrow.
First trucks arrive at destination that afternoon, but receiver won’t unload after “miller time” so over night more trucks arrive. By morning he’s got a dozen trucks onsite with more enroute.
Usually one driver in the middle of this throws a tantrum at the clerks desk and for the rest of the day the clerk abuses all the other drivers.
Still don’t get it do you?
I run locally in the State of Florida. The only thing I hate is the 10 hr off rule. It’s not enough time off between shifts when some guy’s driving 1 to 2 hrs each way just to come to work and go home. 12 hrs off for local drivers would be better in my opinion.
Keep the government out of trucking!! They want to keep us from making good money while taxing us too much!!! Let us drivers do what we do best…. drive!!
there’s more to trucking than driving brother, they don’t want to keep us from making money, the more we make the more they make through taxes, think about it, and if you think drive is what truckers do best, then i sure hope your not running the same road as me when we pass, the new generation needs to wake up and see it’s not about just driving, to do the job and to do it safe you have to learn to operate your rig , in any conditions or situations, once you’ve done that then you can drive your life away.
The 34-hour reset is the only thing that gives you a decent break if you’re running a 74 hour week.
It’s the 14 hour day that screws up your driving.
Nothing like 10min rest stop naps & handfuls of sunflowers seeds in our attempts to beat the clock regardless of fatigue.
You’re in the wrong business.
I don’t mind running hard, just that it’s insanely unsafe to do it on a mandated clock.
Not all of us are lucky enough to have $90K M-F 9-5 40’s
Stay safe, driver.
NOW GET RID OF THE STUPID!!! 30 MIN BRK!!!!!
Not just the 14 hour rule but the stupid “sit in my truck parked for 30 min rule”. How dumb!
I don’t mind elogs at all, but working for a company that wants to run you out of hours on purpose and only give you short runs that make you no money. But waste your time. In 2013 I made $24,000 because of a BS company I won’t name names but Poor Ass Management and Shakey Whining Inconsiderate Failing Transporters suck the life right out of you. Give me a decent company to work for and elog so I don’t forget to log my time and I’m good. But these companies want to live in your pocket and take all your money and leave you broke.
nope, they just want to replace us with robots.
We’ll kiss myTeamster..
Anyone ever think about the IDIOT LOSER SCUMBAGS that caused the fmcsa to react to begin with. I mean the CUTRATE MILEAGE driver…in a milk truck, with a 7 digit number on the side, with a wino type of guy behind the wheel…that called (in the ditch) back of 7 eleven his home!
“You are those Losers!”
(as a dem), if the new administration had anything to do with this, thank you. Now lets work on pausing the 14 hour clock with minimum 2 hours on line 2, loosening CPAP requirements, AND EXTREME INFRASTUCTURE INVESTING. Great news on 34 hours
There is no magic formula in the trucking business, Safety has to come first, and e-log will be implemented and all of this money losing or gaining will adjust with the time.
Govern highway trucks are already going strong in the North Canada it was a nightmare at first and now all are use to it and they adjust their schedule with the fact of speed limiter.
Shippers and brokers including receivers have to be accountable for any time lost it is on their part they force the driver to go faster in order to meet their ridiculous delivery time like 2 am while you are suppose to be sleeping.
So just fine these guys and educate them about normal and safe working conditions.
totally agree Robert.
Robot trucks are coming, then we’ll all get a permanent break. I should’ve went to college…
I don’t know what deference elog/paper log will make. In elogs you can still drive until your 11 hours exhausted, it doesn’t matter what your 14 hours say. Basically you are doing samething with paper logs. It’s not like you are going to drive 14 hours on elog and 20 hours on paper. The law is calling for 11 hours a day drive time and 14 hours on duty so the time you are being off duty doesn’t county against 14 hour rule technically if you correctly add up all on duty time for the day. The DOT officer asked me for elog and I hand it over to him all he did was just calculate hours per day. He didn’t cared when I started the clock or stopped, all he look at was legal hours I worked per day. Now if you want to drive more then 11 hours a day then it’s bad news for you.
I never understood how sitting in a truck stop somewhere staring out the window for 34 hours is supposed to “rejuvenate” you anyway.
I say get rid of the HOS entirely , but use them for new drivers with less than 2 years experience many of them can work with shorter hrs restrictions , and offenders that cannot drive safely( take their LIC ) , but not proven professional drivers , it really does not work very well at all , my most problematic issue is HOS . its a determent to safe driving , forces drivers to drive unsafely because they must drive within a window of time to make the delivery on time , if you are late too often you are out of business. Or it makes a person unproductive , and waiting time .
The real issue is poor training of truck drivers it should be like an apprenticeship , once you are proven and competent , there should be no restrictions , unless they are proven dangerous , then be severe with them or get them off the road . But HOS is what I call communist .
Why is the trucking industry the only industry where a 70 hour work week is totally plausible in the 1st place. Is there something I am missing? Just because you sleep in the back of a truck you are forced extrahuman working hours makes zero sense. Arguing a 34 hour reset seems to me be a secondary issue to a complete philosophical overhaul of the entire industry.
If I have been on for 10 days straight and running Recaps for the last two and still show 10 hours on my 70 can I take 34 hours off or can my company force me to keep running Recaps