Recently, there has been a new bill introduced to do away with the 30-minute rest period and introduce a “pause button” of sorts, in the form of a 3-hour break that would extend the current 14-hour rule out to a 17-hour rule. Although I can see the flexibility this would offer to OTR drivers, I can also see a couple negatives in my line of work that could be an unforeseen and unintended side-effect of the passing of this bill.
Flexibility is something that has been a challenge since the introduction of the most recent set of HOS rules, which has been much more unforgiving in the face of the newly solidified ELD mandate. My hat is off to Texas Rep. (R) Brian Babin for being one of the few with the courage to stand up for us drivers and offer some sort of a stance in recognition that our current HOS rules are a cookie-cutter, one-size fits all approach to cover an industry with many facets of operations, capabilities and procedures. I for one would welcome the flexibility created by his REST (The Responsible and Effective Standards for Truckers) Act, would it not be for the industry “vultures” out there perched and ready to take advantage of the new standard, should it be passed.
As seen in one of my previous articles here in the Team Run Smart community, it is very easy to run right up against the upper limits of the current 14-hour rule in my day-to-day. It is never the driving aspect of 11 hours that I am threatened by, but 100% of the time is the on-duty, not-driving aspect of the current rule that puts me right up against that 14-hour rule when it does occur. The option to extend that time out a bit to rest then get to a safe place at the end of the day without worrying about going over on total hours would be great, but there are always those out there that would expect this rule to “bend” in their favor as a result of passing. Unfortunately there are brokers, shippers, receivers and even dispatchers out there that will expect that unreasonable and unnecessary dock time be logged as this new 3-hour extension. This would be an unfortunate and un-spoken consequence of the intended responsible use that this bill is intended to promote.
In my opinion, this rule would create an environment in my local/regional line of wok where the unspoken expectation from these abusive parties would be for me and my drivers to work the new 17-hour day for the same rate as the current 14-hour day, with the exception of a little bit of possible detention pay. I give an A+ to this new bill for its intention, but as with any type of hours reform brought to the table thus far, see it susceptible to manipulation from the parties that will benefit from it the most from its misuse. This may be a little harder to attain for these parties thanks to rules put in place to make coercion illegal, but still see that something like this is possible in certain environments. I welcome the option to be able to extend safely my HOS limitations if need be and think that Texas Rep. (R) Brian Babin is a model for others in his recognition that our HOS rules are flawed, but hope swift action can be taken against those that abuse this move towards safety should it pass and be abused. New rules aimed at safety like this are a step in the right direction, but are only as good as the safeguards that are put in place against those that want to manipulate the intention of these rules to benefit from their loopholes.
What are your thoughts on this new bill that is running it's way through the works?
