The new American hours-of-service rules are here and–surprise surprise–I understand that a sleeper berth exception will be incorporated into the proposed Canadian regulation that’s expected to get provincial approval this fall. Cue the applause from industry lobbyists, who say this is important in order to create some sort of cross-border harmony and level out the competitive playing field for Canadians operating down south. They’re probably right.
Funny thing. though. I thought all the time, research, and millions of dollars that went into developing a new HOS regime in Canada was about improving highway safety and simplifying the rules so they’re easier to comply with.

Managing time in the sleeper berth is going to become something of a black art among truck drivers. In the United States, the rules allow the driver’s 14-hour on-duty clock to stop with a minimum two-hour break in the sleeper. Drivers can even split the 10 hours off duty required each day into two periods in the sleeper as long as they meet certain conditions. Played right, drivers can extend their 14-hour work day to as many as 17 hours.
Safety? Simplicity? Economics have won the day.

Remember that exhaustive, $5-million US research project to determine when and why truck drivers get tired so we could take steps to prevent fatigue? That was news eight years ago. Since then, there have been countless public meetings, rallies, seminars, debates, and more research projects. Each had budgets for travel, accommodations, speakers’ fees, coffee, donuts, and lots of expensed time for thousands of people. Think of the billions of bits of e-mail that had to be exchanged in the name of fatigue management. The hours that were sucked up. The overtime.

That effort, it seems, has given way to preserving the current “operational realities” in the industry.

For example, on either side of the border (like, there’s a difference in the sleep needs of American and Canadian truckers?), scientists concluded that truck drivers need a solid block of time set aside for sleep. Eight hours was the common number, and the legislation-framers felt that in order to get eight hours of sleep, drivers should be allowed 10 hours of rest–a couple of extra hours for showers, meals, recreation, and so on.

The scientists also suggested limits on nighttime driving, or on daytime work when night driving is necessary.

It was all about fatigue reduction. And on that presumption, I supported the Canadian plan, which called for eight consecutive hours off with two additional hours at the driver’s discretion. Now, the science has gone into the tank so fleets can stop a driver’s on-duty clock by sending him to the sleeper, where he’ll probably sit bug-eyed trying to figure out how to tally up his off-duty time.

If cutting the gizzard out of a reasonably good HOS plan in order to accommodate those “operational realities” is all we have to show for so many years of work and so many dollars spent, it’s a shame. It’s an embarrassment.

The American rules offer no more in the way of fatigue reduction than we’ve had for the past 60 years, and the Canadian rules, once revised with sleeper exceptions, promise the same. They will make compliance more difficult. They’ll make it harder for honest drivers and carriers to earn a living. And they won’t add one blessed iota of safety to the equation.
Politics is at the heart of this and that’s what makes it all the more sickening. The regulators could have saved a lot of money and time and just said, here’s a 24-hour day, we’ll let you work for 14 hours; you need to rest for 10. You manage it as best you can. Most drivers are responsible enough to get the rest they need. Instead, they poured a fortune down the drain. They could have built a four-lane highway from Calgary to Chalk River for that kind of money.