Study: Drivers more alert with new rules

U.S. reviews truckers’ service hours

Truck drivers adhering to new hours-of-service rules are more alert and less likely to drift between lanes, according to a field study results released Thursday by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The safety administration published the results of its long-awaited field study six months after the new hours of service rules went into effect. Specifically, the impact of the 34-hour restart provision was studied. This provision requires drivers to be off duty for 34 hours, including two nighttime periods from 1-5 a.m., before they can begin a new work week.

Changes in the law are aimed at making commercial motor vehicle drivers and other motorists safer. Field study research, the safety administration said, supports its new rules. One of the biggest criticisms of the changes, which went into effect on July 1, 2013, is that the administration did not offer field study results in advance.

A first look at the 54-page report didn’t yield any surprises for Lane Kidd, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association. Kidd also heads the Trucking Alliance, a coalition of freight transportation and logistics companies focused on industry safety-initiatives.

“Looking at the initial results it appears that drivers having two successive days of rest are less fatigued than a driver who had only one night off duty,” Kidd said. “I’m not sure anybody was surprised by that.”

Volunteers from what the safety administration described as “three carriers” were involved in the study. Names of the companies that participated was not immediately available and Kidd declined to comment “at this time” on whether any member companies of the Arkansas Trucking Association or the Trucking Alliance participated in the research.

Alliance members who also belong to the Arkansas Trucking Association include Maverick Transportation Inc., a privately held carrier in North Little Rock, J.B. Hunt of Lowell, Fikes Truck Line of Hope and Schneider National of Wisconsin.

Administration chief Anne Ferro was in North Little Rock on Wednesday for a meeting with members of the Arkansas Trucking Association board. She discussed results of the study and heard company concerns during the safety-focused meeting.

The study indicated that that the rule will prevent approximately 1,400 crashes and 19 fatalities each year, the safety administration said.

“This new study confirms the science we used to make the hours-of-service rule more effective at preventing crashes that involve sleepy or drowsy truck drivers,” Ferro said in a release. “For the small percentage of truckers that average up to 70 hours of work a week, two nights rest is better for their safety and the safety of everyone on the road.”

In the study, data from 106 commercial motor vehicle drivers was evaluated between January and July 2013. Drivers evaluated who did not adhere to the restart exhibited more lapses of attention, particularly at night, reported greater fatigue and were more likely to veer between lanes. Differences between the test results are labeled as “significant” for drivers who did not adhere to the new rules.

Researchers designated two study conditions for the project: a restart break with only one nighttime period and a restart break with more than one nighttime period.

Drivers between the ages of24 and 69 with 12.4 mean years of service participated in the study. Data collected represented 1,260 days on the road and 414,937 miles. Carriers employed 103 of the participants and the other three were owner-operators contracting with a carrier.

Fatigue levels were measured three times per day and a tracking system mounted on participating trucks gauged lane deviation. Wrist monitors to record sleep patterns and smart phones to record fatigue and caffeine intake were also issued.

Prior to releasing the field study, the safety administration had supported its new rules with what it labeled as lab research.Critics inside the industry and in Congress had taken Ferro to task for the lack of real-world results.

A pair of studies conducted by industry advocacy groups and released in November suggested millions of dollars in lost wages because of the new rules. Both the American Transportation Research Institute and Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association studies pointed to declining morale and productivity because of the new rules.

Skeptics of the rules remained even with the release of data on Thursday. Norita Taylor, a spokesman for the owner operator’s association, said the organization was not convinced there was enough variety among participants.

“The study does not appear to us to be representative of those actually affected by the newer hours of service,” Taylor said. “So we are skeptical it can be applied to the larger population within the industry.”

Business, Pages 27 on 01/31/2014

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