Fatigued Drivers and Federal Regulations
Fatigued drivers are a common cause of truck crashes. In an effort to reduce the injuries and deaths caused by drivers operating large trucks while fatigued, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issues hours-of –service regulations governing the time periods during which driver’s may operate large trucks.
In January 2004, the FMCSA implemented new hours-of-service regulations for truck drivers, increasing the required daily off-duty period but also increasing daily and weekly allowable driving times. Under the current rules, interstate commercial truck drivers are not allowed to drive more than 11 hours or drive after 14 hours since starting a duty shift until they take a 10-hour break.
Drivers cannot drive after accruing 60 work hours during a 7-day period or 70 work hours during an 8-day period, but a "restart" provision allows truckers to get back behind the wheel after 34 hours off duty. Using this provision, a driver may log up to 77 hours in 7 days or 88 hours in 8 days.
Further modifications to the work rules took effect Oct. 1, 2005. These revisions provide that drivers who use sleeper berths in their trucks may split the required minimum 10-hour daily off-duty period into a period of at least 8 hours in the sleeper berth and a period of at least 2 hours in the sleeper berth or off duty. Short-haul truckers may extend their work day twice a week, and these drivers are exempt from a requirement to carry a logbook of their hours of work.
Federal courts overturned the rules in 2004 and again in 2007. In October 2009, the FMCSA reached a court settlement with safety groups. Under the terms of the deal, the FMCSA agreed to review and reconsider the rule and to publish a final rule by July 2011.
Even with the regulations, studies show that the rate of accidents involving fatigued drivers has not significantly declined. A study by the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety based upon surveys of long-distance truck drivers in two states (Pennsylvania and Oregon), found drivers are spending more hours behind the wheel since the work rules changed in January 2004. They also report more instances of falling asleep at the wheel.
In Pennsylvania, 19 percent of truck drivers admitted to dozing at the wheel at least once during the past month in 2005, up from 13 percent in 2003, under the old rule. The proportions in Oregon were 21 percent in 2005 compared with 12 percent in 2003.
Current regulations allow truck drivers to record their hours in written logbooks that are reviewed by inspectors. Studies of long-distance truck drivers and our own experience has shown that work rules commonly are violated.
About a third of drivers interviewed by the Institute in 2003, 2004, and 2005 admitted to often or sometimes omitting hours from their log books. Some truck drivers refer to logbooks as "comic books" because they are so easily falsified.
Our experience in these cases has shown that it is common for truck drivers to carry two sets of log books – one correct and the other falsified to show driving within the regulations in case the driver is inspected or involved in a collision.
