Trump Moves to Ease Drive-Time Rules for Truckers - Do You Support the Rollback?

What’s the story?

• The Department of Transportation is moving to relax the federal regulations on how many hours truck drivers can work.
• The trucking industry has long fought to relax the “hours of service” rules, which confine long-haul truck drivers to a 14-hour “driving window” limit, 11-hour driving limit, and 60-hour/7-day and 70-hour/8-day duty limits.

What are people saying?

• The National Transportation Safety Board has declared fatigue a “pervasive problem” in all forms of transportation and added reducing fatigue-related accidents to its 2019-2020 “most wanted list” of safety improvements.
• David Martineau, a 26-year driver who works for Doug Andrus Distributing, told the Idaho Post Register he’s adjusted to the drive-time rules.

“I feel it’s fine. As long as we’re making miles and money, I’m OK with it. You just got to run it like a clock. You can’t take too long at the truck stops or take too long of breaks, or you won’t make it.”

Supporters

• Bill Sullivan, a lobbyist for the American Trucking Association, told the AP that the group has a special relationship with the Trump administration and hopes this translates to getting the rules relaxed.

"First of all, this administration is not as aggressive as the prior. Most importantly, the partnership with them has not been as suspicious of industry as in the past."

• Norman Tello, a driver for Tate Transportation, told the Post Register that the rules should be changed.

“It’s flawed because you’re racing the clock all the time,” Tello said. “You’re constantly fighting to get to where you want to go before your time runs out.”

What do you think?

Do you support relaxing truckers’ drive-time restrictions? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: iStock / Animaflora)