FMCSA To Ask White House To Clear Split Sleeper Berth Pilot Program

From Overdrive:

The U.S. DOT announced Friday it’s moving forward with a plan to institute a pilot program to study the feasibility of altering hours of service regulations to allow truckers to split their off-duty sleeper berth time into segments, rather than having to take 10 straight hours off duty or use the limited 8-2 split. The agency also announced that 240 drivers have been selected to participate in the program.

....

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in June issued a proposal for the split sleeper study. The agency’s plan is to study the 240 drivers for three months. Participating drivers will be able to split their 10-hour off-duty period into segments, such as 5-5, 6-4 or 7-3. Otherwise, drivers will operate as they normally would.

Researchers will seek to determine whether such splits adversely affect operator fatigue levels or crash instances. The agency has partnered with Virginia Tech’s Transportation Institute and Washington State University to conduct the study.

Omg!!! omg!!! i'd love it. but....wont happen :( just cause i want it lol

From Overdrive:

The U.S. DOT announced Friday it’s moving forward with a plan to institute a pilot program to study the feasibility of altering hours of service regulations to allow truckers to split their off-duty sleeper berth time into segments, rather than having to take 10 straight hours off duty or use the limited 8-2 split. The agency also announced that 240 drivers have been selected to participate in the program.

....

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in June issued a proposal for the split sleeper study. The agency’s plan is to study the 240 drivers for three months. Participating drivers will be able to split their 10-hour off-duty period into segments, such as 5-5, 6-4 or 7-3. Otherwise, drivers will operate as they normally would.

Researchers will seek to determine whether such splits adversely affect operator fatigue levels or crash instances. The agency has partnered with Virginia Tech’s Transportation Institute and Washington State University to conduct the study.

Instead of doing all that convoluted bs, just eliminate the 2 causes of that rule to exist: the 8 hour rest break rule and the rule of DEATH: That ever so annoyin 14 hr rule.

The agency also announced that 240 drivers have been selected to participate in the program.

Well there's no shortage of good data on whether or not using a flexible split sleeper berth will work. We used a system with a flexible split sleeper for decades!! Millions of drivers used that system for many decades. But yeah, go ahead and "test it" to see if it works.

Idiots.

I wish they would just be honest with themselves and admit the best system was the one we had for like 50 years. They changed something that didn't need to be changed:

• 10 hour drive time
• 8 hour break
• Split sleeper berth option:
  • Minimum of 2 hours per session
  • Two sleeper berth sessions must total 8 hours
• 70 hour rule

That's it. Simple as that. Excellent system that never should have been changed.

The agency also announced that 240 drivers have been selected to participate in the program.

Well there's no shortage of good data on whether or not using a flexible split sleeper berth will work. We used a system with a flexible split sleeper for decades!! Millions of drivers used that system for many decades. But yeah, go ahead and "test it" to see if it works.

Idiots.

I wish they would just be honest with themselves and admit the best system was the one we had for like 50 years. They changed something that didn't need to be changed:

• 10 hour drive time
• 8 hour break
• Split sleeper berth option:
  • Minimum of 2 hours per session
  • Two sleeper berth sessions must total 8 hours
• 70 hour rule

That's it. Simple as that. Excellent system that never should have been changed.

Beautifully said Brett Beautifully said. That 14 hour clock made me so mad I cant tell you how many times it got under my skin. Iched just like a flea.

I still believe there has to be a limiting factor for all the locals. I stand by that this would be an improvement.

- 12 hours on duty (driving/not driving)

- 10 hour break

- split sleeper of 2 breaks totaling 10 hrs, each must be at least 2 hours

- 70hr rule.

Drive Safe and God Speed.

- 12 hours on duty (driving/not driving)

That's just a more restrictive version of the 14 hour rule. That's going to make the problem even worse.

The 70 hour rule already limits on duty time. If a local driver logs off duty during unloading that's cheating the logs. With electronic logs the company would have to verify how a driver is getting paid for unloading if he's off duty.

I'm assuming you're thinking of companies like Sysco where the driver unloads the truck.

I am thinking any local situation. If you are restricted to only your drive time, then a local person who spends lots of time waiting at shipper and receivers or even those that offload themselves, could end up working incredibly long days. They weren't driving, so..... many hourly people stay on duty for loading and unloading. 12hrs of on duty wouldn't effect an OTR guy. You would still more or less 11 hrs worth of driving. 15 min pre/post trip, 15 min at a shipper/receiver, 15 mins for fuel. Still 11 hrs worth of driving. I am thinking of things from a safety standpoint. There needs to be someway to monitor/protect those local (hourly) drivers.

I am thinking any local situation. If you are restricted to only your drive time, then a local person who spends lots of time waiting at shipper and receivers or even those that offload themselves, could end up working incredibly long days. They weren't driving, so..... many hourly people stay on duty for loading and unloading. 12hrs of on duty wouldn't effect an OTR guy. You would still more or less 11 hrs worth of driving. 15 min pre/post trip, 15 min at a shipper/receiver, 15 mins for fuel. Still 11 hrs worth of driving. I am thinking of things from a safety standpoint. There needs to be someway to monitor/protect those local (hourly) drivers.

Monitor/protect?

If a driver cannot protect himself then he needs to do some other line of work. We are trying to get away from big brother protecting us.

We are trying to get away from big brother protecting us.

Not in this industry we're not. They monitor everything we do every second of the day and night. That's life in the trucking industry. There's no getting away from it.

Besides, this industry had very little monitoring a few decades ago and it didn't go so well.

There needs to be someway to monitor/protect those local (hourly) drivers.

Yeah but your idea is still going to force drivers to cram all of their work time into one gigantic bundle. What we used to be able to do was this kind of thing:

5 driving

3 sleeper

5 driving

5 sleeper

5 driving

3 sleeper

5 driving

5 sleeper

We could split it up like that. So if you drove 5 hours to a customer and then spent 3 hours in your sleeper berth waiting to get loaded you could then drive 5 more hours and only have to go in the sleeper berth for 5 hours before you could drive again. You weren't forced to take super long breaks and then forced to drive your whole day's hours in one gigantic marathon.

Remember, the 70 is a combination of drive time and on-duty time. So even if a local guy is driving a little then unloading a little all day long, that time is accruing toward his 70. The length of his days are still going to be limited by that. The maximum he could do would be like a string of five 14 hours days in a row and the current system even allows for 14 hour days. That would be 70 hours and he would need a 34 hour reset at that point.

And if you're not using the split sleeper berth you only get a total of 10 hours of driving and then you have to take a full 8 hour break.

I believe you're thinking of some sort of situation where a driver only drives very short distances but spends long periods of time unloading the truck himself in a 36 hour marathon session. The 70 hour rule is going to limit his work week. I suppose they could come up with some sort of protection for that edge case but I'm not sure if it's necessary or exactly how to do it.