Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association
1 NW OOIDA Drive, Grain Valley, MO  64029    
Web site: www.ooida.com

Contact: Norita Taylor, norita_taylor@ooida.com 
Headquarters: (800) 444-5791

(Grain Valley, Mo., Dec. 19, 2007) – During a Senate subcommittee hearing on hours-of-service regulations, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) supported the decision of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for keeping both the 11-hour option and allowing the more widely used 34-hour restart. However, OOIDA also pointed out that the lack of regard for drivers’ time must still be addressed if significant change regarding fatigue is to ever be achieved.

Under the current hours-of-service rule, OOIDA believes drivers must give up work and compensation if they pull off the road to rest during the work day.

“If all stakeholders were fully vested in the rules and all drivers were able to fully comply with the regulations without fear of some type reprisal, there would be a sea change in the industry,” said OOIDA member Walter Krupski who testified at the hearing.

“If drivers were compensated for all of the work they do, drivers’ time would become valuable and shippers would be forced to streamline their operations to minimize loading and unloading time. A new approach is needed if Congress and the agency truly wish to make significant improvements in driver fatigue.”

The Association contends that shippers and receivers routinely make truckers wait from two hours to two days before they are allowed to load or unload their trucks. Some even require drivers to perform warehouse work such as restacking pallets. Not only is such work unpaid, but it essentially steals the time that drivers have under the HOS rules to do the work they are actually paid for; driving the truck.

In 1995, Congress asked the Department of Transportation to examine whether it should have authority over shippers and receivers to effectively enforce the safety regulations.

“The DOT never submitted to Congress or otherwise published an examination of this issue,” testified Krupski. “Motor carriers have historically been unwilling to remedy the problems associated with loading and unloading abuses, and drivers are powerless to resolve them.”

The Association also believes if drivers were compensated for both their driving and non-driving on-duty work they would have every incentive to record all of their on-duty time, and problems with the accuracy of logbooks would disappear.

“Unless these economic issues are addressed, drivers who become disqualified from driving for violating the hours-of-service rules will simply be replaced by a new driver facing the same economic pressures,” added Krupski.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is the national trade association representing the interests of small-business trucking professionals and professional truck drivers. The Association currently has more than 7,500 members residing in Pennsylvania and over 158,000 members nationwide. OOIDA was established in 1973 and is headquartered in the greater Kansas City, MO, area.