New Federal Rule Targets Truck And Bus Drivers

January 09, 2013

New federal rule targets truck and bus drivers

Commercial truck and bus drivers on Missouri's highways spend long hours behind the wheel. Mindful of public safety, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has recently adopted a new rule to make sure drivers get enough rest to operate safely.

Hours of service rules

The new rule, which went into effect June 1, 2012, supplements federal hours of service rules that apply to all licensed commercial drivers and the companies that employ them. Hours of service rules require that a driver can only drive a certain number of hours before taking a specified amount of time off to rest. The rules were designed to make driving safer for everyone by taking tired truckers and bus drivers off the roads, hopefully reducing the occurrence of dangerous truck accidents.

Commercial truck and bus companies are periodically reviewed for compliance with the hours of service rules. Compliance is documented in the drivers' logbooks and backed up with toll receipts and other verification of times and locations.

Under the new rule, commercial truck and bus companies with the most hours of service violations will have to install equipment that drivers will use to record their hours of driving and hours of rest.

Electronic on-board recorders

The devices, called electronic on-board recorders or EOBRs, will be required in all the commercial vehicles of interstate carriers with a 10 percent or greater rate of hours of service violations. About 5,700 truck and bus companies will be using EOBRs by the end of the first year that the new rule is in force.

The EOBRs periodically record the date, time and location of the vehicle, and drivers enter their duty status, whether driving or resting, into their EOBRs.

Taking safety seriously

The FMCSA has safety as its highest priority, according to an administrator. Future plans call for extending the requirement for EOBR use to a larger percentage of commercial carriers beyond the most serious hours of service violators.

The Secretary of the U.S. DOT remarked that the agency is committed to cracking down on drivers and companies that put others at risk on America's highways through risky driving practices. The hours of service restrictions are vital in keeping sleepy drivers off the highways and protecting everyone from their accident-prone behavior. The new rule puts teeth in the DOT's enforcement abilities.

Given the alarming number of commercial carriers that have been allowing their drivers to violate hours of service rules, Missouri motorists and their passengers are still at risk of becoming victims of truckers' negligent driving.

Injuries that result from a commercial carrier's negligence deserve compensation, and a Missouri personal injury attorney is the person to call for help in obtaining that compensation.

Article provided by Harper, Evans, Wade & Netemeyer
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