CURTAINSIDE TRAILER BLOG

New Regulations Affecting Fleet Managers in 2017

[fa icon="calendar"] Oct 14, 2016 1:01:30 PM / by Pete Johnson

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What changes and challenges will 2017 serve up to the trucking industry? Certainly, economic issues remain an x-factor. Freight is often a bellwether for the health of many core components of the economy and, whether the present recovery continues or stalls, trucking companies will be among the first to know it. Another signpost on the road ahead is new federal legislation set to take effect during the coming year. Bills poised to become law in 2017 will impact daily driver ops as well as administrative procedures and adoption of new technology. Here’s a sample of what’s in the pipeline from Washington.

Hours Of Service (HOS) Changes

The Fiscal Year 2017 Federal Transportation Funding Bill, formulated by the influential Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Committee, attempts to undo some leftover trucking-related business from recent years. The THUD bill makes no changes to the established driver hours of service limit of 60 hours in 7 days and 70 hours in 8 days without a reset (a 34-hour rest period in which the driver is not behind the wheel). However, by the terms of the recent amendment to the 2017 THUD bill, once a 34-hour reset period is utilized by a driver, driving hours over the following consecutive seven days are limited only by a 73-hour cap. The bill’s purpose is to clarify the driver's reset option while the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA) conducts studies to determine whether regulations governing resets should be made still more stringent for driver safety. If subsequently deemed necessary to enhance safety by the FMCSA, a final bill would likely stipulate that each 34-hour reset must incorporate two consecutive periods between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., plus place limits on the reset option, restricting drivers to only one reset per 7-day weekly period.

Until the FMCSA studies are finalized, the 73-hour cap stipulated by the 2017 THUD amendment remains the only factor limiting driver’s hours after a reset. While some safety lobbyists advocate the more stringent approach to reset, many drivers—as well as lobbyists at the American Trucking Association—feel that placing additional restrictions on resets is overkill and could keep drivers away from home longer by extending total trip hours and needlessly “stranding” them on the road to obey enhanced reset rules. For fleet managers and the trucking industry at large, struggling to recruit new hires and retain experienced drivers, regulations with the potential to extend trip duration and keep drivers away from home longer is generally not welcomed.

 

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ELD (Electronic Logging Device) Mandate

Passed back in December of 2015, the ELD Mandate finally becomes effective in December, 2017. The American Trucking Association lobbied for the bill due to longstanding concern about independent owner-operators misrepresenting HOS (hours of service) on written logs. Meanwhile, immediately after passage in 2015, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) filed suit with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association to delay implementation. The OOIDA sued on the basis that requiring independent owner-operators to install ELD technology imposed an unreasonable financial burden and also constituted an invasion of privacy since law enforcement and other government entities could monitor a driver’s ELD data.

Most large freight carriers have already invested in ELD technology to facilitate electronic logging by drivers. However, as of December, 2017, mid-size and small freight operations will be confronted with meaningful expenses to acquire the technology as well as set up internal operations to manage the systems. Because the period of adapting to the ELD system takes time for drivers, fleet managers and other staff responsible for the system, productivity may be negatively impacted at the outset.

 

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Topics: Fleet Managers, Trucking Regulations

Pete Johnson

Written by Pete Johnson

Vice President, General Manager & Co-founder of Roland Curtains Inc. Pete was the first US employee for Roland International opening the US manufacturing business while creating sales in North, Central, and South America.

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