Rod Grams: “highway safety, especially concerning long-haul trucks tends to be a contentious issue. It is generally understood that…”

“highway safety, especially concerning long-haul trucks tends to be a contentious issue. It is generally understood that the long-haul truck driver faces a tedious and fatiguing task. Government regulations on commercial truck drivers set parameters on hours of operation in the hope necessary rest can be achieved, thus preventing tired drivers from undertaking their critical duty. How can a government mandate for rest produce results? Anyone in the business knows that the Administration's proposed regulations governing truck drivers have gone from bad to worse. We recently passed legislation delaying the implementation of a new proposed regulation. However, there is a solution. But first, some background. Prescriptive Hours of Service regulations, HOS, have been unchanged for more than sixty years. After ten hours driving, a driver may not drive for eight hours. A driver may not drive more than seventy hours in eight days. Supposedly the non-driving time is intended to provide opportunity for sleep and other necessary activities. However, long-haul drivers may end a ten-hour driving period at a time of day when their physiological alerting system, or body clock, will not permit sleep. At the end of the non-driving period they may be tired but may legally drive. In many instances, they must drive fatigued in order to make timely delivery.”