As trucking companies approach Jan. 4, the date on which they must begin complying with new federal rules related to driver rest time, some here are unsure of exactly how the changes will affect their bottom lines.


They do say, however, that the trucking industry wont be the only one impacted.


The so-called hours-of-service rules, which aim to make Americas highways safer, require longer rest periods for drivers between work shifts, but also let them stay behind the wheel an hour more per day than allowed now. Some trucking executives here say the biggest change for drivers will be a rule that indirectly cuts into the amount of time allowed for loading and unloading cargo. They say that move could force nontrucking sectors to bear the brunt of the new rules.


Trucking has been pretty poor for three years now, says Mike Mitchell, operations manager for Spokane-based Mercer Trucking Co. Theres really nothing left we can absorb. So, yes, (the additional costs are) going to have to be passed on.


Dale Peterson, chief operating officer of Spokane-based Trans-System Inc., says that company is expecting a 5 percent-to-6 percent increase in its overall costs due to the new rules.


Charlie Parfrey, who together with his wife, Donna, owns Spokane-based Parfrey Enterprises Inc., which does business as Parfrey Trucking Brokerage, is projecting a 10 percent jump in costs.


All three executives say they expect their companies to pass on those increases to others in the shipping chain.


The shippers are going to have to add forklift drivers and other workers to get the trucks loaded more quickly, Mitchell says. If they dont help us out in that way, theyre going to see larger-than-expected freight rate increases in 2004.


Parfrey, who also is on the board of directors of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, a national trade group, says some trucking companies have increased their rates in anticipation of the rules. Some per-mile fees recently have hiked by 5 cents to 15 cents, or 4 percent to 12 percent, he says.


The new rules


The new mandates, announced last spring by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), will apply to what are called property-carrying drivers, not to passenger-carrying drivers. They include the following rules:


Drivers will be required to take at least 10 consecutive hours off before starting a new work shift. They will be allowed to split those 10 hours in two if they rest in a sleeping berth in the truck as long as those rest periods last two hours or longer.


Currently, drivers only have to take eight hours off between shifts.


Drivers wont be allowed to get behind the wheel after 14 consecutive hours of work, whether that work involves driving, loading or unloading a truck, or some combination of such tasks. Drivers, however, will be allowed to do nondriving work activities after a 14-hour shift.


The current rule states that truckers can drive up to 16 hours per 24-hour period, but after 10 driving hours or 15 total working hours, they must take eight hours off.


Within a 14-hour shift, only up to 11 hours of driving will be allowed. That means if it takes more than three hours for a shipper to load or unload a truck, a truckers driving time will be reduced.


Peterson says, Our hope is to train our customer base that we need to have our drivers in and out quickly. Let them do all that they need to do and still drive an 11-hour shift.


Once a trucker begins a 14-hour shift, the clock wont stop ticking until those hours are up, and rest breaks during shifts wont be required. Currently, drivers can stop and start their 10-hour driving stretches or 15-hour total work stretches for lunch, fuel, and other breaks. Soon, such rests will eat away at truckers 14 hours of allotted on-duty time.


Will more truckers be cruising down the interstate with a sandwich in one hand and a can of soda in the other, to avoid wasting driving time on breaks?


Now that stopping and eating will be counted on the clock, thats something were going to have to manage and deal with, Peterson says.


Drivers will only be allowed 60 on-duty hours in any seven consecutive days and 70 hours in any eight consecutive days. They will be able to restart their work week, though, after taking 34 consecutive hours off. Current rules allow the same 60 hours in seven days and 70 hours in eight days, but theres no provision on when drivers can restart a workweek. With the new restart provision, truckers could work things out by changing their sleep schedules so they could drive up to 77 hours in a seven-day period. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety objects to that high number of hours.


The FMCSA stopped short of mandating that trucks be equipped with electronic devices to monitor compliance with hours-of-service rules, a requirement that had been proposed during the eight-year process of writing the new rules. The agency currently is investigating the reliability of such devices and the benefits of requiring them, it says.


The agency claims that the new rulesthe first major changes to the regulations in almost 65 yearsare science-based and will lead to fewer fatigue-related vehicle accidents. It projects the changes will save up to 75 lives and prevent about 1,300 crashes a year. In 2002, there were about 4,900 truck-related traffic fatalities, it says.


Peterson, of Trans-System, says its hard to predict whether the new rules will make drivers feel better rested.


If you talk to a group of drivers, itd probably be hard for them to believe that a federal mandate would cause them to have better rest, he says, chuckling.


Parfrey says the new rules will force drivers schedules and the movement of freight to change dramatically. The rigidity of the rules will cause problems for drivers, the trucking industry, and the flow of products in general, he contends.


If everyone runs legal under this system, youre going to have produce stopped for a weekend of 34 hours in the middle of nowhere, says Parfrey. Youre going to have someone stopped in the middle of Timbuktu with no bathrooms, no restrooms, nothing.


He says he expects that weigh stations will become jammed with drivers whose 14 hours have expired, but who cant legally leave to find a hotel or restaurant to spend their off-duty hours.


At Trans-System, drivers generally are asked to log 500 miles of travel a day now, Peterson says. A typical assignment is for drivers to transport a truckload across the country, unload it, and return within two or three weeks, he says.


Its typical for us to load in Spokane and not unload until were in Philadelphia or some other cross-country city, Peterson says. I dont think that schedule will change much.


Peterson expects the new rules to affect short-haul trucking companies, which spend more time loading and unloading cargo than long-haul carriers. The FMCSA has built into the rules an exception for short-haul truckers, though, allowing them one 16-hour work shift during any seven-consecutive-day period. Without those extra two hours per week for short-haul truckers, the industry would have needed to hire at least 48,000 new drivers, it estimates.


Mitchell, of Mercer, which does business in the Northwest and Western Canada, says, Thats where the shippers are going to play a big part in this. If they change the way they do business, and load and unload promptly, it will help keep the rates down.


Mitchell says it commonly takes an hour to load or unload a flatbed truck, but drivers often must wait their turn in a line of four or five trucks. Some trucking companies are considering or have begun charging waiting fees, either by the minute or the hour, he says. Mercer hasnt decided yet whether it will begin charging such fees, Mitchell says.


Peterson says its the end users who ultimately will pay if the new rules mean higher costs for trucking companies.


Nationwide, theres some theory that because of the loss of production time, it might take another 84,000 drivers and trucks to handle the same amount of freight Jan. 4 that it took to handle Jan. 3. The freights still going to move, Peterson says, adding that the bigger impact will be on trucking companies clients and ultimately on the consumer.


Parfrey says hes heard similar projections about the need for more driversand equipment.


This will impact the shipper, the (receiver), the broker, the trucking company, or the owner/operator, and it will impact the consumer, because if trucking companies and brokers have to increase rates to their customers, theyre going to pass that on to the consumer, Parfrey says.


Insurance industry blasts rules


Meanwhile, at least one automobile-insurance group says the rules dont go far enough to ensure road safety.


In a June issue of a publication it produces called Status Report, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety blasted the new hours-of-service rules for not requiring electronic monitoring devices in trucks.


Peterson says drivers will record the hours they work in logbooks, as they do now, and be subject to checkpoints along the highway. Trucking companies also face random audits by the U.S. Department of Transportation, he says.


Long term it would be difficult for drivers to falsify their driving records, he says.


Parfrey says he believes members of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association will comply with the new rules and run legal, but he says, I think more people are going to try to find ways to falsify them. They will have no choice.


The Institute argues that the restart provision in the new rules will allow drivers to squeeze five driving shifts into every four days to maximize driving time.


Theres no scientific evidence that 34 hours off will be enough to recover from many long work days in a row. Nor is there evidence that lengthening the off-duty period will make it safer to drive 11 hours at a stretch, Anne McCartt, senior researcher for the Institute, writes. The agency claims the new rules are going to improve safety, but in fact theyre likely to have the opposite effect. Theyre likely to worsen the hazards.


Trans-System is OK with the new rules, Peterson says.


Its going to make us manage our operation just a little bit different, he says. I think the jurys out on whether the rules will make highways safer and on their effect on the trucking industry.


Peterson points out that the date the rules go into effect is still more than a month away, and he says some things could change between now and then.


They say its final the way it is, but it wouldnt surprise me if there werent some eleventh-hour changes to it, especially something that has to do with the deal about stopping to eat. You cant take a half-hour break to eat? I dont know if thats fair, and I think there are a lot of people who think thats not fair. Theres some heavy lobbying going on still.