The American Trucking Associations and Minnesota Trucking Association have jointly petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to conduct a pilot program to study the effect of increased flexibility in the use of sleeper berth breaks by truck drivers.
“The trucking industry wants FMCSA to take its positive, laboratory-based findings on the value of split sleep and try to repeat them in a real-world field study,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “Doing a pilot test using professional drivers in actual trucking operations could give the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration even more scientific data on which to base future improvements to the sleeper berth rules.” The hours-of-service rules for truck drivers require that they take 10 consecutive hours off after their 14-hour on-duty period. However, increasingly sleep research highlights the benefits of shorter and more frequent rest periods, according to both groups. “In the case of many truck drivers, particularly those working in teams, allowing them to break up their 10-hour off-duty period into two shorter periods would be beneficial,” said John Hausladen, president of the Minnesota Trucking Association. In addition to examining any potential benefits of sleeper berth flexibility, the pilot project proposed by the trucking groups would look at the role of technological improvements in promoting driver alertness and safety. For several years many trucking groups,... |
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Showing posts with label trucking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trucking. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
ATA, Minnesota Trucking Association Request Sleeper Berth Pilot Project
Friday, November 22, 2013
Truckers say new HOS rule has increased their fatigue: survey
New federal rules on commercial truck driver hours of service have actually increased driver fatigue, according to two-thirds of drivers recently surveyed by the American Transportation Research Institute.
ATRI, the research arm of the American Trucking Associations, surveyed more than 2,300 commercial truck drivers and 400 carriers about how the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s HOS rule has affected their operations. Among reasons for the change in drivers’ fatigue, respondents noted that the new HOS requirement to take a 30-minute break after eight hours of on-duty time causes their workdays to be longer because of the break itself and the time it takes to drive to a safe location. More than half of the drivers also reported that the rule’s changes to the 34-hour “restart” provision to reset their weekly driving hours has decreased their safety by forcing them onto the roads during hours of congested traffic, which also endangers other motorists. The rule, which fully went into effect July 1, requires drivers to sleep between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. for two periods during the 34 hours. |
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