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.
Wrong, this started way before obummer.
They will drive faster and safety will be compromised.
Every new rule and regulation that comes out of this administration is created to employ the most amount of havoc and economic destruction they can incorporate into the daily lives of every breathing creature.
Railroads are to slow down and run smaller trains, and to run an equal number of trains in multi-state districts designed by the government for just that purpose.
Familiar?
Limit the number of hours from 82 to 70? For who? Long haul trucks haven't been able to go over 70 hrs per week for decades.
Oh it will not!
I can guarantee you that people WILL spend their money on SOMETHING.
What ELSE would they do with it?
Save it???
HAHAHAHA!
There are very few truckers who do 7 straight 11.7 hour days to total 82 hours a week. I don’t know any. Can’t say I ever met any. I’m sure they exist, but I’m thinking they’re not all that common. Maybe they meant team-driving.
I deal with truckers in my work,and too many drive tired.
Businesses want the stuff delivered but nobody wants to let the trucker park in THEIR lot and get some much-needed sleep.Truckers have falsified their driving logs for decades in order to keep their job.The trucking companies and their dispatchers routinely expect drivers to do whatever it takes,legal or not,to get the freight delivered on time.I’ve seen trucker who could hardly keep their head up splash water on their face and start another run.And truckers sick with the flu yet pushing 40 tons down the road.
The much-vaunted deregulation enriched a newly created class of brokers who took the profits that should have gone to the drivers.
And no,I don’t now,and never really wanted to drive a truck.But I’ve met thousands in my career and they are mostly good people trying to make a living.
No,they drive 15 hour days and make fake logbooks.
So this would be just a 10% reduction in hours driven per day.
I don't see how this would lead to more trucks on the road. It would just mean 10% more truckers needed to put in the driving hours necessary to get the goods to where they need to go.
This is bad for those truckers that get paid by the hour and want all the hours they can get. This is good for truckers in general as it means a higher demand for truckers ... unless of course the 10% is filled by Mexican truck drivers.
This should be good for the average driver as there will be fewer sleepy truck drivers on the road.
The average consumer will see the delivery cost go up about 10% since trucking companies will have to hire more truckers.
Those who are against the 70 hour/wk limit should presumably be against any limit at all. So even the current 82 hour/wk limit should be anathema. If the average person only needs 8 hours of sleep, then truckers should be allowed to drive (24-8)*7 = 112 hrs/wk.
All the night driving and early deliveries is because the retailers don’t want to “waste” space having a stockroom.
The old saying was a city would be in trouble after 4 days without deliveries;I wonder how many now would have problems in 2 days?
The JIT meme is fine IF nothing ever breaks down.
Your calculation doesn’t allow any time for those truckers to eat,shower,shave,change clothes,wash clothes,use the toilet,etc.
I’ve met a few truckers like that and ,so far, they were mostly Mexican drivers.Both truck and drivers literally stank from no hygiene.Where do you suppose the waste goes when the truck has a outhouse hole in the floor?
So what's the catch?
It’s crap. Most OTR drivers are paid by the mile. Cut their hours and you cut their miles and their pay. It’s bad enough some truckers can have a rough period where it’s hard to make the equivalent of minimum wage. When they’re on the clock waiting to get unloaded or loaded the federales don’t care that the driver has to make up those miles to keep dispatch happy and build his paycheck.
What the feds are doing if more drivers are needed is creating a demand for new drivers which don’t have the experience. Some ads now say a company will accept someone with two years of experience. I’ve even rarely seen less. Think about that when you’re on the interstate alongside a truck with the placard showing a hazmat. Welcome to the world of FUBAR federale regulation.
Other regulations that create the difficulties faced when complying with hazmat quals, TWIC cards and all the other BS mean many truckers are just saying screw it and leaving the profession.
I am an owner/operator that hauls bulk propane out of the refineries in Wa State. Being Hazmat, I do not run fake logs, and run near my 70 hour limit. The new rules require us to log breaks during the day and reduce our available driving hours.
This is nothing more than the continued assault on any functional part of our economy by Obozo. Without trucks, this nation grinds to a halt. Everything you buy has been on a truck. Everything.
One old guy summed up your point really well once when I was a dumb teenager by saying everything but the air you breathe is brought in by truck.
Sadly sounds all to familiar and not unexpected. Ayn Rand was right about out of control government.
Yeah...but around the shale oil deposits this is the norm...
each well needs over a million gallons of water during the fracking process.....
and when the well is producing oil has to be trucked to the rail head.
It takes as much as one million gallons of water to frac a single Bakken oil well. Frac water is freshwater that is used to pressurize and fracture oil-bearing formations to increase permeability and enhance the flow and recovery of oil. Frac water is typically transported in 7,500 to 8,000-gallon tanker trucks from a freshwater well to the oil well location, so it takes at least 125 tanker loads per well. It’s easy to see that getting water to a well site can be a time-consuming effort, and if trucks are waiting in line for hours, like they were last Thursday in Watford City, it can be frustrating for the truck driver as well as the oil company.
Oil companies typically send trucks to the closest water source, and last Thursday it was easy to see that Watford City was the closest source for many drivers, as there were 25 waiting in line to fill their tanks.
Pic at http://www.watfordcitynd.com/?id=10&nid=1175
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