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Rule Requires 8-Hour Stops for Truckers Changes May Raise Costs and Parking Problems for Drivers Who Use Sleeper Berths.

Posted on: Saturday, 20 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

A new rule governing how long truckers may drive left intact the most controversial provisions of a 2003 revision, including allowing 11 hours of driving instead of 10.

The new rule, announced Friday, included changes that could raise costs and increase parking problems for truckers who use sleeper berths, an industry representative said, especially in states such as Nebraska, which limit stays in public rest areas.

The rule no longer will permit drivers to split the required 10- hour rest time into short periods in a truck's sleeper berth. Truckers now will be required to take an uninterrupted break of at least eight hours, then another two-hour break later.

The change corresponds to sleep research indicating an uninterrupted eight-hour rest is more beneficial than short breaks, said Nance Harris, vice president of the Nebraska Trucking Association.

The impact from the change could be widespread, though, she said. The allowance for splitting sleeper-berth time, for instance, eased delivery scheduling.

The longer sleeper-berth breaks will mean less turnover in sometimes scarce parking spots at rest areas and commercial truck stops, Harris said.

Lengths of stays permitted at rest stops vary by state. Nebraska limits stops to eight hours and prohibits overnight parking. Ramp parking is prohibited.

Under the new rule, drivers no longer must keep log books if they travel fewer than 150 miles from home per day, and they aren't required to hold commercial driver's licenses.

Those drivers, who typically work for retailers, small package- delivery companies and construction and landscaping firms, would be allowed to work two 16-hour days a week, including breaks, up from 14 hours.

Safety group Public Citizen, which appealed the 2003 rule along with two other safety groups, quickly criticised the new rule Friday for leaving in place the 11-hour drive time provision.

Annette Sandberg, chief of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said the revision announced Friday was designed to reduce crashes caused by fatigued drivers.

"The research shows that this new rule will improve driver health and safety and the safety of our roadways,'' Sandberg said during a press conference.

Studies indicate the risk of deadly crashes significantly rises after the 10th and 11th hours of driving, said Joan Claybrook, president of the safety group Public Citizen.

"Trucks are going to continue to be rolling time bombs on the highway,'' Claybrook said.

Harris said changing the 11-hour drive time provision would have required time-consuming retraining.

"We now have thousands of drivers on the road who have started their professional careers since that became the rule. This is the only system they've known, and this means the industry won't have to spend a lot of time and money retraining them," she said.

Sandberg said the rule, which will take effect Oct. 1, will cost long-haul trucking companies $10 million and save short-haul companies $280 million.

Fatigue causes 5.5 percent of fatal truck crashes, she said.

That statistic concerned Harris, who said focusing on a small percentage of fatal crashes seemed misguided.

"That means 95 percent of all fatalities involving trucks don't involve fatigue. You kind of wonder if opponents of the rule weren't seeing the forest for the trees in terms of highway safety."

Source: Omaha World - Herald

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