OTTAWA, (Nov. 29, 2004) – A report authored by an expert scientific review panel has shot down a hours-of-service-related proposal that was being floated by the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

The report — to be submitted later this week to the Standing Committee on Compliance and Regulatory Affairs of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators — details the conclusions by a panel of experts concerning a proposal to increase the working window of elapsed time for truck drivers from 16 to 18 hours.

The panel’s recommendation to Transport Canada states that “proactive measures to address operational problems should be proposed which safeguard the health and safety of drivers and the public, rather than long split shifts (window).”

The Canadian Trucking Alliance strongly supported the plan to include the 18-hour provision in the final HOS rule expected early next year, and this past summer announced that the Council of Ministers would agree to take a closer look at the idea. The CCMTA was then directed at a meeting in Quebec City to review the impacts of the 18-hour working window and to report back within 60 days.

The CTA says it was pushing for the 18-hour window so that truckers would have two extra rest hours they may have lost during non-driving delays at shippers’ and consignee facilities or at the border. However, some truckers felt that the daily extension may have given carriers and shippers an excuse to lengthen a driver’s work day without proper compensation, and that it would reduce incentives for industry to become more efficient in reducing such delays.

The panel agreed for the most part. The CCMTA report obtained by Today’s Trucking states that in regards to the 18-hour split shift option: The (proposal) “is not consistent with the 24-hour day, which was a core, scientifically supported recommendation of both the Canadian and U.S. expert panels of 1998.”

Moreover, the panel found that “it pushes drivers, under all operational schedules that include the window, into using the midnight to 6 a.m. nighttime period at the start, middle or end of a shift.”

It concluded that the extra two hours would have had little impact in certain situations. “There was also a strong consensus by both the Canadian and U.S. expert panels of 1998, and which is confirmed by this Expert Panel, that driving during this time period of circadian low (with lower alertness and performance) should be minimized,” it stated. “Without the use of a sleeper berth, the additional two hours off-duty is unlikely to be used for recuperative sleep.”

Other points highlighted in the report include:

— As a result of the aging population, sleep-related health problems will increase and thus many more drivers will be expected to experience problems working with the 18-hour split shift.

— Focus group drivers suggested the new window would increase falsification of logs, since the 18-hour window will allow more opportunities for falsification.

Another factor leading to the panel’s rejection of the proposal, was that it was not aware of any studies that have directly compared the 16-hour and 18-hour windows; however, “there are ample studies that show the deleterious effects on performance of these long hours of sustained wakefulness,” it stated.