Saturday, January 20, 2007

EOBR's revisited

Back on the 11th I mentioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's new Electronic Onboard Data Recorder rule which would apply to less than 1% of the industry.

Here's a couple data points

Ol' Blue USA:HOS Survey Review – Opens Eyes
Ol’ Blue, USA™ recently conducted a survey on its Website (www.OlBlueUSA.org ) about the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Hours of Service (HOS) Regulations – and the results were alarming, but not surprising.
.........

Of the 1,094 qualified respondents, a vast majority of them (65%) were company drivers, while 26% were leased owner operators, 8% were independent owner operators with their own authority, and 1% were involved in other occupations which require a CDL. The primary route these respondents traveled broke down to about 63% long haul (more than 500 miles from base), 32% regional (within 500 miles of base), 8% local (within 100 miles of base), and 3% of other types of routes. The total percentage exceeded 100% due to multiple route types.

What did the survey find? In a nutshell, it revealed that the majority of drivers feel that they understand the HOS regulations, to a certain extent, but have questions. The alarming (but not surprising) data was the fact that 77% of the respondents admitted to deliberately violating the HOS regulations in the past and 55% said they were still currently deliberately violating the rules.


From a 1997 survey of truck drivers Let It Be Palletized:
A Portrait of Truck Drivers’ Work and Lives (PDF)

Not including those who reported no work in the previous week, drivers worked up to the legal limit on
working. Drivers worked 60 hours in the last seven days at the median, and averaged 63.2 hours. Few
drivers, only slightly over 10% of the respondents, worked 40 hours or less in seven days. A larger
proportion worked more than permitted by the hours of service regulations: 25% of the respondents
reported working at least 75 hours, 10% reported working at least 90 hours.


It seems like a bit more than 1% of the driver population is violating the rules.

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