Posted on 01/13/2012 5:23:22 PM PST by Libloather
Retailers warn economy will be slowed by new trucker scheduling rules
By Keith Laing - 01/12/12 11:27 AM ET
New limits on the number of hours truck drivers can work per week enacted by the Department of Transportation will put the brakes on commerce, the lobbying group for retail companies said Thursday.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA) announced last month that its new rules for trucker scheduling will limit the number of hours a driver can work to 70 per week. Under the old rules, truckers could drive 82 hours per week.
The Washington-based National Retail Federation (NRF) said those lost hours will increase the cost of doing business for its members.
“The new rule is a bit complicated but the ramifications are severe and will surely be felt on America’s roadways and throughout the retail industry supply chain,” NRF Vice President of Supply Chain Jon Gold wrote in a post on the organization’s blog Thursday.
“NRF believes that these changes will drive up retailer transportation costs and make trucking less safe due to the fact that more trucks will have to be added onto our already congested roadways to make up for those drivers on mandatory breaks,” Gold said.
He added that the new FMCSA rules “failed to truly recognize the importance of nighttime driving and early morning deliveries.”
“As we all know, many retailers rely upon nighttime driving and early morning deliveries as a way to keep costs down and trucks off the road during peak driving times to reduce congestion with passenger vehicles,” Gold said.
When the new rules were finalized by Obama administration transportation officials last month, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said they were an important step toward improving the safety of the national transportation system.
“Trucking is a difficult job, and a big rig can be deadly when a driver is tired and overworked,” LaHood said in a statement in December. “This final rule will help prevent fatigue-related truck crashes and save lives. Truck drivers deserve a work environment that allows them to perform their jobs safely.”
Safety advocates have pushed transportation officials to also reduce the number of hours truckers may drive each day, but DOT chose to maintain the daily 11-hour limit on driving. Under the FMCSA proposal, however, truckers will be required to take a break of at least 30 minutes for every eight hours they drive.
and force more hours to the Mexican truckers.
I thought slavery was outlawed. I'm all for this change.
and force more hours to the Mexican truckers.”
We drove back from southeast Colorado to southeast Texas over Christmas. Grandson and I kept track of the number of trucks we passed which had a Mexico or Canada address on their rig. Less than 10% were from the U.S. Once it turned Midnight not many trucks on the road but the service areas were jammed with them stopping for a few hours rest.
These FMCSA hours-of-service rules have undergone multiple changes over the last ten years. This is just the latest generation, with other major changes in 2002 and 2005.
Nope, SOP for Cook County, IL.
Yes, try FDR and look up Wickard v. Filburn.
And here I thought this was a conservative site. Why not just reduce the max hours down to 38.5 and double the number of truckers needed? No wait, you could eliminate trucks and then get the donkey breeders employed!
There's a real need for basic economics training here on FR. Read Bastiat, Smith, and look up FEE or Austrian Economics. In the meantime, stop commenting on economic issues. FDR was wrong.
“This should be good for the average driver as there will be fewer sleepy truck drivers on the road.”
No, it just means more will be cheating on the logbooks.
The easiest way to control someone is to make a criminal of them
Cheating on the logbooks(which has always been common) is becoming rather harder with the installation of computerized logging systems onboard the truck.Big companies are doing this for liability reasons and I heard these devices will be mandatory in trucks in a couple years by federal law.Well,maybe only in U.S. trucks...
Silly me.
[Where do you suppose the waste goes when the truck has a outhouse hole in the floor?]
Getting off the subject, I’m old enough to remember when the toilets of passenger trains flushed directly onto the tracks. Conductors would lock the bathroom doors when the train was stopped at a station.
Must have been a lot from Canada because only 2 or 3 carriers have been approved for Mexico to USA cross border, totaling as many trucks. One of those trucks being a straight hauling sea food in the Tijuana to San Diego area.
As much as people are freaking out about Mexican trucks coming up here the Mexicans don’t want to mess around with the FMCSA and on-board recorders that they’d be required to use.
Earlier this week Lockridge was reporting that only 6 carriers total had even applied. So chances are you didn’t see all that many trucks from Mexico.
Just sayin...
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