Publication Details

New Hours of Service Rules Benefit Long-Haul, Hurt Short-Haul

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Article Originally Published: May 2003

The information contained in this article is not intended to be legal advice. Readers should not act or rely on this information without consulting an attorney.

While industry leaders generally approve, changes in the motor carrier Hours of Service rules announced last month by FMCSA are likely to provide a major productivity windfall to long-haul and truckload carriers, but may have negative results for local or regional operations.

The new rule changes, effective January 4, 2004, increase allowed daily driving time from 10 hours to 11 hours, increase required off-duty time from 8 hours to 10 hours, and reduce allowed daily on-duty time from 15 hours to 14 hours.

Long-haul or truckload carriers and their owner operators receive the greatest economic benefit. A "restart" provision allows carriers to condense an operator’s 60 or 70 permissible on-duty hours per week into a 4 or 5 day time period, and then begin a new 60 or 70 hour period after 34 off-duty hours – as much as 38 hours earlier than permitted under the present rules.

For carriers conducting essentially 5 day per week operations, the one-hour daily increase in driving time is offset by the two-hour increase in mandatory rest time. Reduction of permissible daily on-duty hours from 15 to 14 also could have a negative impact on operations with high concentrations of loading, waiting, or other non-driving work time.

Challenges to the rule changes are possible either within DOT or in court.