Whatever you think about the current laws in place to restrict the amount of hours (and when) truckers are allowed to operate their rig every week, you have to admit that there should be some sort of protocols in place to protect motorists and the drivers themselves.
Well the particulars of these restrictions are currently being hotly debated in congress at the moment. The folks on capital hill are actually arguing whether or not to add a provision in upcoming funding legislation to ease the trucker scheduling regulations which have been in place for years.
The main crux of the proposal is the elimination of the current requirement that drivers not operate between 1 and 5 a.m. on consecutive nights. It is also seeking to remove a limit on the number of time they’re allowed to declare a new work day. Despite these changes, drivers would still be required to work no more than 70 hours in one week. And upon reaching the 70 hour limit they’d be required to take a 34-hour break before driving again.
But why implement any of these changes in the first place? Well proponents of the current law claim that the overnight scheduling rules result in more drivers being forced to set out during the daytime, which means heavier traffic and longer trips. And then of course, with heavier traffic comes more opportunities for accidents.
At any rate, nothing has been decided yet but we’ll keep you posted on any developments.
Comments by John Costelac