What's On, What's Off?
Enforcing the 14-hour rule could be tricky.
Patricia Smith
Senior Editor
No doubt we'll see plenty of head scratching when Jan. 4 rolls around. And much of it will have to do with the 14-hour on-duty rule, according to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, an organization of federal, state and provincial enforcement agencies that, among other things, provides training materials and guidance regarding the enforcement of federal safety rules.
The new regulations prohibit drivers from operating a property-carrying commercial vehicle after 14 hours on duty (versus 15 under current rules). Meals, breaks and other periods logged as off-duty will be counted in the 14-hour tally. Only qualifying periods in the sleeper berth can extend the 14-hour limit — and that's where enforcement could get tricky, CVSA representatives told participants in an hours of service teleconference hosted recently by the Truckload Carriers Assn. and TREAD-1.
To determine if a driver has exceeded the on-duty limit, CVSA is instructing officers to start at the last 10-hour rest period or last valid sleeper berth period and count hours, including driving, on-duty not driving, off-duty and invalid sleeper periods.
At each sleeper period the officer will ask the following questions: Was it more than two hours? Does driving time before and after total 11 hours or less? Does driving time, on-duty time, and off-duty time before and after total 14 hours or less? Is this one of two sleeper berth periods totaling 10 hours or more? If the answers are all yes the sleeper time is valid.
But what happens if there's only one sleeper period? Example: After 10 hours off-duty the driver drives for five hours, takes five hours in the sleeper, drives another five hours with the intention of taking a second five-hour sleeper break — but gets stopped before that last break?
Steve Keppler, director of policy and programs for CVSA told conference participants that, unless otherwise directed by FMCSA, they are advising officers to give drivers the benefit of the doubt. "At roadside, that first period is valid until proven otherwise," he said. "The officer can't assume the driver won't take another qualifying period in the berth." However, he cautioned that compliance auditors as well as plaintiff lawyers in liability suits will scrutinize the records for that second sleeper break.
What if, after the second five hours of driving, that driver pulls into the terminal or arrives home for 10 hours off-duty? The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has said that sleeper and off-duty periods can be combined for the required 10 hours of rest if they're taken consecutively. But a single sleeper berth period of less than 10 hours can't be combined with a non-consecutive off-duty period to extend the 14-hour clock.
Keppler and Collin Mooney, CVSA director of training, said they have asked FMCSA for further guidance regarding the ability to combine different clock-stopping options. If the non-consecutive sleeper and off-duty periods in this example can't be combined, the driver would be in violation of the 14-hour rule because he didn't have that second sleeper period.
Under CVSA guidelines, drivers will be placed out of service for 10 consecutive hours if they're found in violation of the 11-hour driving maximum or 14-hour on-duty rule. They will also be placed out of service for 10 hours if they don't have a logbook in their possession, if their logbook isn't current for the previous seven days, or if it doesn't accurately reflect their duty status.
As with current rules, drivers will not be permitted to drive after having been on duty 70 hours in any eight consecutive days if the carrier operates every day of the week, or 60 hours in seven days if it doesn't operate every day of the week. Time logged off-duty is not counted in 60/70 hour calculations.
Under CVSA guidelines, drivers found in violation of the 60/70 hour rule will be placed out of service until they're eligible to drive again. To make that determination, officers are instructed to tally the on-duty hours for the previous seven or eight days, then deduct hours for the first day to determine how many hours the driver can drive the following day.
Example: On-duty time Jan. 12 through Jan. 19 totals 74 hours. The driver will be put out of service for the remainder of Jan. 19. The driver was on duty 11 hours Jan. 12. The officer will deduct that to determine how much time the driver has available on Jan. 20 by subtracting 11 from 74, which equals 63. The maximum 70 minus 63 equals seven hours.
After Jan. 4 drivers will have the option to restart the 7/8 day cycle by taking 34 consecutive hours off duty, but Keppler said that option is not available if a driver has exceeded the 60/70 hour limit.
Although enforcement officers and roadside inspectors are generally expected to show some mercy for the first few weeks of the new rules — mainly in the area of fines — carriers and drivers can't count on them to bend the rules.
One conference participant noted that many shippers and consignees can't or won't allow trucks to remain on their property after they're loaded or unloaded. If the 14-hour clock runs out while a driver is waiting in line to be loaded, will he be allowed to move the truck to the nearest truckstop or safe and legal parking area?
The enforcement community is relying on the industry to work out such issues, Keppler responded. While there may be some law enforcement officers who are willing to grant leniency, the issue is really one that has to be worked out by carriers and their customers.
Many have. Joseph Simons, vice president of human resources for Marten Transport, told conference participants that their salespeople met with Marten's customers to explain the situation and to work out detention charges for delays.
"The primary job of our drivers is to drive," he said. "We think it's time that we talk very seriously with our shippers and receivers, and that all those labor intensive activities — such as loading and unloading — should be transferred to them."
An audio tape of the conference, "Implementing the New Hours of Service Rules," along with conference materials, can be ordered from KRM Information Services, (800) 775-7654 or through the Truckload Carriers Assn., www.truckload.org.
New Rules continued...
