U.S. Moves to Monitor, Limit Hours of Long-Haul Truckers

The Transportation Department, hoping to prevent crashes caused by drowsy truckers, on Tuesday proposed limiting them to 12 hours a day behind the wheel and requiring that long-haul rigs carry electronic recorders to monitor their schedules.

The proposed regulations are part of a broader government effort to address long-standing safety problems from a growing number of bigger, faster trucks on the highways. Responding to public concern, Congress last year created a truck safety agency to improve the industry’s record.

Large trucks account for 3% of vehicles, but crashes involving them represent 13% of traffic deaths--5,203 in 1999. That was a slight decline from the previous year, but the Transportation Department believes the number of deaths can be halved within a decade. Drowsy truckers are estimated to cause more than 750 fatalities annually.

Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater said the new rules are “designed to assure that big rig operators have the rest they need to drive safely.” They would save an estimated 115 lives a year while essentially paying for themselves through lower insurance and other costs, the government said.

But the announcement immediately set off a war with industry and drivers, even as some safety groups complained that it fell short. The contentious issues could take a year or more to resolve, but the government finally seems to be on its way to modernizing 60-year-old safety rules written when trucks averaged 25 mph.

“A lot of people’s lives are at stake on all sides of this debate,” said Michael Belzer, a University of Michigan business professor who studies the industry. “It’s very emotional. Drivers need to be able to balance their schedules to do their jobs, but the public needs to limit the number of hours they work and the amount of fatigue under which they operate.”

The use of on-board recorders quickly emerged as one of the most controversial parts of the proposal.

“We find it outrageous,” said Todd Spencer, a spokesman for the Missouri-based Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn. “With mandatory on-board monitoring systems, the government has taken the position that truckers are worthy of a level of scrutiny not applied to convicted felons.”

The recorders would replace easy-to-fudge paper logbooks on which drivers now note their hours. National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jim Hall has long urged the use of recorders on trucks and buses. Only long-haul trucks would be required to carry the devices, which would automatically register start and stop times.

Studies show that the average driver now works 65 to 70 hours a week, above the legal limit of 60 hours. Violators would face a maximum penalty of $25,000.

The trucking industry is one of the most complex for safety regulators. Not only is it vital to the economy, it is also incredibly diverse. There are big companies with hundreds of trucks and self-employed drivers with one or two rigs. There are cross-country haulers and companies that operate only in a few states. Some truckers are salaried; most are paid by the mile.

“We recognize the importance of the industry to the economic health and well-being of the nation, but we also have an obligation to the American people to ensure that our system of transportation is safe,” said Slater.

Under the Transportation Department proposal, drivers would be required to take a minimum of 10 consecutive hours of rest during each 24-hour period. By comparison, current rules call for only eight consecutive hours of rest.

The new regulations also call for two hours of break time a day. No breaks are now required.

In another change, drivers could spend no more than 12 hours behind the wheel in a 24-hour period. This is controversial with safety groups, though all sides expect the hour rules to be somewhat negotiable.

Current rules require drivers to rest after 10 hours behind the wheel. However, in practice, schedules can be drawn up so a driver legally spends as much as 16 hours behind the wheel in a 24-hour period.

The Transportation Department said its proposed 12-hour-a-day limit will help establish a more natural balance between work and rest. But safety groups say 12 hours is too much.

“That is a very foolhardy thing to do,” said Gerald Donaldson of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “After the sixth or seventh hour, a driver is getting tired. A fatigued driver is an increased crash risk.”

The industry takes a sharply different view. For it, 12 hours of rest is excessive. The American Trucking Assns. predicted such a requirement would dramatically worsen the current shortage of drivers and create economic bottlenecks--and, actually, more traffic.

“[This] would force today’s sophisticated e-commerce, point-and-click, just-in-time delivery systems into old economy inefficiencies,” said Walter McCormick, president of the American Trucking Assns. in Alexandria, Va. “Warehouses would bulge with goods as the freight backlog ballooned due to the massive shortage of trucks and drivers.”

What’s more, he said, the proposal would result in a 50% increase in the number of trucks on the highways. “That translates into as many as 180,000 additional drivers and trucks on the road just to keep the current economy moving,” he said.

But Michigan business professor Belzer questioned the need for more trucks. He said a shortage of drivers would mean only that trucking companies would have to raise their rates to attract workers. But, he added, that may not necessarily be a bad thing for the industry or its customers.

Belzer, who has estimated the costs and benefits of various proposals for the government, projects that higher wages would attract better quality drivers and reduce accidents. According to his calculations, truckers now average $8.13 an hour.

“Even though labor costs would go up, the costs of crashes go down and the quality of service improves,” he said. “If you raise wages and reduce hours, that makes the job more attractive--and everybody wins.”