|
 |
FMCSA 04-05 Non-Media Inquiries:
Friday, August 19, 2005
Contact: Patricia Lee
Tel.: (202) 366-3867 (Media Only)
U.S. Department of Transportation Issues New Rules Regulating Work and Sleep
Schedules for Commercial Truck Drivers
New Rules Based on Review of Medical Research and Traffic Safety Data
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA) today issued a new Hours-of-Service rule that spells out
the length of time commercial drivers can operate trucks before they are
required to take a break. The new rule is the product of years of research meant
to keep drivers healthy and make highways safer, officials said today.
The new rule replaces Hours-of-Service regulations that were last updated in
2003. Parts of the rule, including the maximum driving time and minimum rest
limits remain the same. However, the rule unveiled today includes changes
affecting short-haul operators and longer distance drivers who use in-cab
sleeper-berths for their rest.
“This new rule will help keep drivers healthy and make our roads safer,” said
Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta. “Drivers that are well rested are
less likely to lose control, crash, or injure others.”
“The research shows that this new rule will improve driver health and safety and
the safety of our roadways,” said FMCSA Administrator Annette M. Sandberg.
“Ensuring drivers obtain necessary rest and restorative sleep will save lives.”
As in the 2003 regulations, the new rule prohibits truckers from driving more
than eleven hours in a row, working longer than 14 hours in a shift and driving
more than 60 hours over a seven day period or 70 hours over an eight day period,
Administrator Sandberg said. In addition, the new rule requires truckers to rest
for at least ten hours between shifts and provides a 34-hour period to recover
from cumulative fatigue.
FMCSA said it tasked driver health and safety experts to review over 1,000
health- and fatigue-related articles and studies and considered thousands of
comments received from drivers, truck companies, safety advocates and
researchers before settling on the new safety provisions. Based on this
research, FMCSA concluded the new rule will keep drivers healthy and reduce the
5.5 percent of fatal truck crashes that are caused by driver fatigue.
The most important change under the new rule now allows short-haul operators not
required to hold a commercial drivers license, like landscape crews and delivery
drivers who work within a 150 mile radius of their starting point, to extend
their work day twice a week. They also will no longer have to maintain logbooks.
The change was prompted by safety data that show short haul drivers make up over
half the commercial fleet yet are involved in less than seven percent of the
nation’s fatigue-related fatal truck crashes, Administrator Sandberg said.
Another change contained in the new rule requires truckers who use
sleeper-berths to rest for eight hours in a row, and take another two
consecutive hours off duty before resetting their daily driving schedule.
Studies show that drivers are less likely to be fatigued if they take a single
eight hour block of rest than if they break their rest into smaller periods of
time as they were allowed under the previous rule.
As in 2003, the new rule announced today applies only to commercial truck
drivers, and not to passenger motor coach operators. Motor coach drivers are
still covered by the Hours-of-Service rules in effect prior to 2003.
The new rule will go into effect October 1, 2005. Sandberg pledged to work with
states and the trucking community for the first three months the rule is in
effect allowing them time to update educational materials, train employees and
re-program driving schedules. During this transitional period, FMCSA and state
law enforcement officials will monitor carriers for egregious violations of the
new rule and pursue enforcement action where necessary, she said. For more
information, or to review the new Hours-of-Service rule, please go to
www.fmsca.dot.gov.