Truckers Challenge Rule Designed to Ensure They Get Enough Rest

March 22, 2012

Highway safety is important for everyone, and trucker alertness is a key component of highway safety. That's why for decades, the federal government has required truckers to keep track of the hours that they drive. These laws, governing Hours of Service (HOS) are designed to ensure truck drivers have sufficient time to sleep and therefore prevent driver fatigue, which is a significant cause of highway accidents.

The latest revisions to the HOS rules, however, have some truckers and trucking companies concerned, because they feel the rules keep drivers off the road too long. The new rules issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) require that drivers have at least one 34-hour period of no driving once a week, and furthermore, this period must include the hours of 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. on two consecutive nights. In other words, drivers must take two nights and one day off at least once a week. The new rules would go into effect in July of 2013.

Truckers, led by the American Trucking Associations, have challenged the new federal rule in court, claiming it to be "arbitrary and capricious," meaning that the rule has no real grounding in facts or evidence that it will improve highway safety.

Although the HOS rules have many provisions requiring drivers to take breaks so that they may sleep, the FMCSA felt that many drivers were continuously pushing to drive the maximum number of hours every day, day-in, day-out and were thus still susceptible to the sort of truck accidents that are caused by being sleep-deprived. The 34-hour rest period over two consecutive nights, the FMCSA says, is necessary to ensure that drivers have some significant "down time" to fully rest.

Of course, the federal rules can only ensure that drivers have the opportunity to rest; they cannot make them actually sleep. The ATA claims that other measures, such as limiting truck speeds, would have a greater effect on highway safety.

Whatever happens with the ATA's court challenge, highway safety remains dependent to a large extent on the safety and alertness of the nation's truckers. Anyone who has been involved in an accident with a truck should ensure that they talk with an experienced personal injury attorney, who has the resources to fully investigate whether the fatigue of the truck driver may have contributed to the accident.

Article provided by Bordas & Bordas, PLLC
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