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Effective
January 4, 2004, the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration and the Department
of Transportation, have mandated new Hours
of Service rules for the trucking industry.
To minimize negative financial effects, it
will require a cooperative effort between you
as the shipper and Hill Brother’s Transportation.
We all must understand the new rules, and improve
our internal processes accordingly. The following
is a summary of the changes.
Each duty period must begin with at least 10
hours off-duty, rather than eight hours.
Drivers may then drive up to 11 hours instead
of 10 hours, but are limited to 14 hours in
a duty period that includes meals, refueling,
servicing the truck and other routine duties.
The rule allowing 70-hours on-duty in eight
consecutive days is the same, but drivers can
restart the eight-day period only by taking
off at least 34 consecutive hours.
The 11th hour
Under the new rules we are left with just 3
hours in a 24-hour day to complete necessary
housekeeping duties. Any additional duties
the driver must take on will reduce the amount
of available drive time, leading to delays
in the schedule.
Please review the following items that may
affect you and the load you are shipping or
receiving.
Impacts on your end:
Multiple stops.
Delays loading, (the load isn’t ready
or personnel not available to manage the load).
Unloading delays.
Help from the driver (inventory, loading or
unloading, sorting and distributing).
All of these cause delays and can affect the
number of hours available to drive, which can
quickly domino into fouled delivery schedules.
Below are some ways you can help reduce costs
and improve efficiency, thereby saving you
money.
Reduce multiple stops and increase stop pay.
Establish extended or overnight parking areas.
Extend shipping and receiving hours.
Limit our driver’s involvement in loading
or unloading.
Utilize drop equipment.
Communicate and update accurate times when
shipments are ready.
Hill Brother’s Transportation has worked
with the Department of Transportation to fully
understand the new rules and we have identified
several areas that we can control. Several
of our departments have already implemented
improvements to ensure we are operating efficiently
under the new guidelines. Some of the things
we are doing include:
-
More driver education
- Improved internal processes
- Streamlined time management and planning
By working together we can make the most of
the new DOT regulations and keep any additional
expenses to a minimum.
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