GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. (April 25, 2003) — Just hours after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new hours of service rules were announced, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) went on record as saying the rules will have minimal impact on truck driver fatigue.

“Not until truck drivers are no longer regularly pressured to meet unrealistic delivery deadlines, and they are no longer forced to perform uncompensated work for as many as 33 to 44 hours per week, will we see a significant reduction in fatigue issues,” OOIDA said in a press release. “Whether or not the federal government allows a trucker to drive 10 or 11 hours a day makes no difference to many shippers and carriers, whose only concern is that their loads are delivered on time. Drivers who refuse to make deliveries on unrealistic and illegal time schedules demanded by shippers are routinely denied business or forced from their jobs.”

Under the new rule, drivers may drive up to 11 hours per day (up from the current 10), but are limited to 14 hours on duty in a given duty period (down from 15). The 14-hour duty period may not be extended with off-duty time for meal and fuel stops, etc. Only the use of a sleeper berth can extend the 14-hour on-duty period. The 60 hours on-duty in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours on duty in 8 consecutive days, remains the same, but drivers can ‘restart’ the 7/8-day period by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off-duty.

Despite OOIDA’s concerns, The American Trucking Associations has already announced its support for the new rule, saying the plan is easy to understand, easy to comply with, and easy to enforce.

Jim Johnston, president of OOIDA said, “After almost 65 years of working with regulatory controls that should have been declared obsolete decades ago, this is a pretty sorry excuse for a revision to address today’s problems.”

The OOIDA statement did however offer its gratitude to FMCSA “for abandoning the most disturbing parts of its initial hours of service proposal, especially the proposal for 24-hour-a-day electronic surveillance of drivers.” It then encouraged regulators to “understand the limited safety improvements that can be made through this rule. Not until shippers and carriers stop pressuring drivers to break the rules, and drivers are paid for all the work they do, will the hours-of-service rules have their intended effect.”

-with files from Truckinginfo.com