A ruling on the available number of hours-of-service a driver is allowed to travel will be issued later this month.
The proposal would reduce the allowed driving time that a truck driver will have available to service customer’s needs by 8 to 10% a day.
According to Transportation Topics, the ATA (American Trucking Associations) predicts that the current restart clause, which acknowledges that drivers can reset their clocks after a 34-hour break, would be changed to 44-48 hours.
This impact on the availability of drivers would lead to capacity issues, as a single driver would be unable to accomplish the same number of miles he or she normally would. Therefore, more drivers would be needed to fill in the void, which, in return, leads to increasing costs to maintain these drivers.
Many individuals in the trucking industry, including members of the ATA, are against the proposal, believing that companies will not be as flexible or productive. This disapproval leads many to believe that the hours-of-service rule will be challenged.
