Recently, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) proposed new rules greatly impacting the trucking industry. In addition to amending rules regarding hours of service for truckers, the agency submitted a proposal regarding the mandatory use of electronic on board recorders (EOBRs) that create digital records of vehicle operation time. Each of these proposed rules targets a long-standing safety issue in the trucking industry - the danger posed by fatigued drivers and the likelihood of truck accidents.
Following the 2010 Operation Safe Driver (OSD) annual meeting, worrisome data showing out-of-service driver violations came to light. Analyzing data from more than 30,000 inspections performed in 2009, the safety initiative revealed increased incidence of vehicle operators being taken out of service for violating federal regulations covering hours of service or duty. Of these tens of thousands of inspections, 5.4 percent of vehicle operators were taken out of service.
Research in the mid-1990s as well as a recent report from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) found that drivers and their companies regularly disregard work hour mandates. The IIHS study found that as many as 21 percent of commercial drivers in one state reported falling asleep behind the wheel.
Millions of commercial trucks share the nation's highways with other drivers and their passengers each year. In 2009, there were nearly 300,000 truck-related crashes. In these accidents, more than 3,300 people were killed, another 53,000 people were injured and more than 200,000 vehicles damaged. Some injuries related to exposure to hazardous cargo and 75 percent of these crashes involved other vehicles. A significant number of these preventable losses related to driver fatigue.
In proposing the hours of service rule change, the FMCSA considered the existing research and worked with various organizations, including the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies and the National Institute for Occupational Safety. As a result, vehicle operators are required to work shorter shifts and have more rest or down time during scheduled work weeks. In mandating the EOBRs for commercial carriers, both the federal government and carriers have a more reliable record-keeping and compliance-monitoring tool.
Pursuant to the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999, the FMCSA was established to promote commercial vehicle safety. Since its inception, the agency has faced obstacles in meeting its goal. With these new rules proposals, the federal watchdog could make more significant progress in curbing dangerous commercial driver behavior and trucking company practices.
