Everyone has been there before: You are driving down the road, you have probably been behind the wheel longer than you should, and you feel your eyes growing heavy. Responsible drivers understand that when this happens it is time to get off of the road and get some rest. But what if your livelihood depended on traveling the next 50 or more miles before you stopped?

Truck drivers are under a tremendous amount of pressure to ensure that they make their deliveries on time. Since most are paid by the mile instead of by the hour, the amount of miles they can put behind them before stopping can make a big difference, financially.

The problem, however, is that tired drivers are more likely to make mistakes. And when the tired driver is operating a 30,000 pound vehicle, those mistakes are more likely to result in a fatal accident.

In 2008, 4008 people died in accidents involving semis and other large trucks. Of those that died, 69 percent of them were occupants of passenger vehicles. The National Transportation Safety Board estimates that 30 to 40 percent of accidents involving large trucks can be attributed to truck driver fatigue.

Hours-of-Service Rules

In an effort to prevent truck drivers from driving on little-to-no sleep, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) imposes hours-of-service regulations that set daily and weekly limits on the amount of time any commercial truck driver can spend on the road.

• Driving time: Truck drivers are not permitted to drive more than 11 consecutive hours within a 14-hour period followed by 10 consecutive hours off-duty. In a 24-hour period of time, truck drivers are not permitted to drive more than 14 total hours.
• On-duty time: Within a seven consecutive day period, truckers cannot spend more than a total of 60 hours on-duty. Within an eight day consecutive period, the total amount of time that may be spent on-duty is increased to 70 hours. Lastly, truck drivers are required to spend at least 34 hours off-duty before beginning a new seven or eight day consecutive period.

"On-duty" time refers to any time the driver is working, whether or not the driver is actually driving during this time period. For example, on-duty time also includes when the truck is being loaded and unloaded and inspected. Truck drivers typically are not paid for these activities and may not even be the ones completing them, but they still count towards the total on-duty time.

Even though drivers and their employers may be subject to penalties for violating the hours-of-service regulations, surveys of the trucking industry show that violations of these important regulations are common. The pressure from their employers to make their deliveries in the shortest amount of time possible coupled with being paid by the mile can encourage truck drivers to ignore the federal regulations and continue to drive more than the 11 hour limit.

Potential Changes Coming to Hours-of-Service Regs

The current 11-hour rule and 34-hour rule went into effect in 2004. Since that time, several safety advocacy groups, including Public Citizen and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, have challenged these rules on the grounds that they threaten the safety of the truck drivers and other drivers.

Before the 2004 changes, truck drivers only were permitted to drive a total of 10 hours in a 14-hour period. Safety advocates have argued that the increase in total amount of driving time can lead to increased truck driver fatigue, putting truck drivers and other passenger vehicles in danger. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the risk of being involved in a crash increases two-fold when a truck driver has been driving more than 8 to 10 hours at one time.

The FMCSA and the American Trucking Association, however, staunchly have denied that the one-hour increase in driving time puts drivers at risk. They argue that their research has shown that the 2004 changes to the hours-of-service regulations have not resulted in an increase in injury or fatality accidents. In fact, they argue that just the opposite is true and point to statistics showing that injury and fatality crashes have decreased since the new regulations went into effect six years ago.

In spite of their claims, a federal appellate court twice has ruled in favor of the safety advocacy groups and invalidated the current hours-of-service regulations. Each time, the FMCSA was directed to begin a new rule-making process that considered the impact of increasing the amount of driving time on truck drivers and allowed interested parties an opportunity to comment on the methodology used to justify the daily hour increase.

The last rule-making process resulted in the FMCSA confirming the current 11-hour and 34-hour rule, which in turn took the safety advocacy groups back to court to obtain a new order against the FMCSA.

Last October, the FMCSA reached a settlement agreement with the safety advocate groups which stays current litigation while the agency opens yet another rule-making process. The FMCSA has nine months to submit its notice of proposed rule-making to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and then another 12 months to actually complete the process and issue a final rule.

Whether or not this third attempt at rule-making actually will result in changing the 11-hour rule back to the 10-hour rule is debatable, given the fact that two earlier rule-making processes were unsuccessful. However, safety advocacy groups remain hopeful that the 2008 White House administration changes will make a difference in finally rolling back the hours-of-service rules to pre-2004 levels.