Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/255292
Voices 4 | Overdrive | February 2014 In December, the American Trucking Associations called for a real-world pilot program to test the safety impact of split sleep, following a laboratory study earlier in the year. However, the National Associa- tion of Small Trucking Companies had beaten ATA to the punch on requesting such an examination, said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. It's already in the works, the agency said. Some readers were cynical about it all. As wrote Michael Hil- debrand on Overdrive's Facebook page, "What? A possibility of allow- ing the driver to use his/her time in a way that may benefit them? I don't think a government agency will ever allow ordinary people to make com- monsense decisions for themselves." "Sounds to me like some college boys are going to make a lot of money at our expense," wrote Norman Ott in his comments on the ATA news. There's at least potential, howev- er, for such a study to work out in drivers' favor, no matter how much safety advocacy groups fight any in- troduction of greater flexibility into sleeper splitting. Josh Cronch, also writing on the Facebook page, echoed Ott but took it further: "Seems to me that they are starting to backstep on all these new hours of service rules they have been putting in place for the last five [and more] years. But now they need to spend money on studies to find out that there was nothing wrong with the rules to begin with. The problem was dispatchers push- ing drivers too hard and drivers not having the guts to tell dispatch they were tired or having the brains to stop and sleep." Some felt more flexible sleeper splits might help alleviate the truck parking shortage. Reader Bryan Manley echoed that thought: "They have messed up the hours of service so badly that nobody drives at night anymore. Truck stops are closing their restaurants at night. They are really screwing up this business." Here are other responses to the news of a split-sleep study in pro- cess: Shawn Knox: A long-haul driver who drives by himself should have different rules than team drivers. Short-haul drivers in LTL, grain haulers, farmers and anyone who drives under 150 air miles [from home base] need their own separate rules as well. Most of us can live with the 34-hour restart, but good God, get rid of that 1 a.m.-5 a.m. back-to-back rule. B.J. McKernon: Why don't you just leave it to me to know when I need sleep? I'm not trying to go up and down these highways falling asleep. Billy Fannin: My proposal: Base number of hours one can drive on years of experience. Lawrence Lamson: I love a nap during midday, especially after a hard fight with traffic or a good meal. Sometimes you don't quite get a good night's rest, and during the day it hits you. [Instead of] doubling up on java to fight it, all you need is a small power nap to boost you. Wishful thinking on sleeper flexibility Yes, allow drivers to split as they see fit 84% Yes, but limit it to a 4/6- hour split 10% Yes, but limit it to a 3/7-hour split 2% No, current 2/8-hour split is adequate 2% I don't know 2% Would more permissive split-sleeper-period rules allow drivers to get better rest? In mid-2013, when an FMCSA-commissioned study showed routine daytime sleep of lengthy periods was more fatiguing overall than split sleep peri- ods, polling at OverdriveOnline.com showed a wide margin of readers favoring maximum personal choice in rest-period splitting. Voices_0214.indd 4 1/28/14 10:40 PM