New trucker sleep rules will increase costs

By: Drivers.com staff

Date: Wednesday, 17. March 2010

Starting January 4, 2004, the new U.S. hours-of-service rules for commercial truck drivers will take effect.

However, the effects of the rules are causing some concern to Canadian Truckers. "From now on drivers will have to clock all driving and non-driving time as part of a 14 hour work shift. This means a loss of productivity of about 10% by the driver and the truck," said Barrie Montague, Vice President of the Ontario Trucking Association. "For shippers, this means transit times will increase. Drivers will no longer be able to tolerate delays at shipping/receiving docks. Freight that requires drivers to wait, to help in the counting, loading/unloading process, or is subject to unplanned delays will be affected. Just-In-Time shipments, multi-stop loads, and appointments will be most vulnerable," Montague told a meeting of the Canadian Trucking Alliance and the Ontario Trucking Association yesterday.

The two associations held a joint briefing session for Canadian truckers in Toronto. The combination of new hours-of-service rules and new security measures is likely to cause delays at the Canadian border, truckers were told. David Bradley, CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance and president of the Ontario Trucking Association, urged drivers and carriers to cooperate to reduce the impact of the changes.

"The co-operation of shippers and receivers is critical in terms of the mitigating the productivity and efficiency impacts of the various new rules and in moderating the inevitable freight rate increases that must result," Bradley said.

"The costs of delays cannot be borne exclusively by carriers, nor can they be absorbed on the backs of the drivers," he added. He also urged drivers and carriers to take full advantage of programs like FAST to speed up border crossing procedures.

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