Rising Risk of Fatality as FMCSA extends COVID-19 HOS Exemptions for Truckers with New HOS Rules Effective in September 2020
The standard Hours-of-Service (HOS) Rules for many commercial truck drivers have not been the same since March 12, 2020 – at least for truckers who are deemed COVID-19 “essential workers” because of what they are hauling on the roads of Indiana, Illinois, and the rest of the country.
However, the Coronavirus Epidemic exemptions to application of the standard HOS Rules are not the only change to safety rules applicable to our nation’s truckers. Last week, it was announced that the federal government has also changed the standard HOS Rules for all commercial truck drivers. Beginning in September 2020, four essential parts of the Hours-of-Service road safety regulations have been removed.
HOS Rules exist for a reason. Without these safety regulations, the risks of a fatal truck crash on our roads rises.
For more on Hours-of-Service Regulations, read:
- Exhausted Truck Drivers: Who Can Discover ELD and HOS Fraud to Enforce Federal Safety Laws?
- Commercial Truck Drivers Driving Without a Break: HOS 34-hour Restart Restrictions.
Great Need for Commercial Truck Safety in the Crossroads of America
Commercial truck safety is especially important to those of us living in Illinois and Indiana, driving along the “Crossroads of America.” Our highways and interstates, such as the Borman Expressway, are filled with commercial trucks (big rigs, semi-trucks, tractor-trailers, and 18-wheelers).
Our area’s high volume of commercial truck traffic, combined with lessening safety regulations on those driving those heavy motor vehicles, only serves to increase the risk of a serious or fatal semi-truck crash in both Illinois and Indiana.
1. HOS Rules Relaxed for COVID-19 Cargo since March 2020
In response to national needs created by the Coronavirus Pandemic, special rules have been established by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) for drivers of semi-trucks, big rigs, tractor trailers, and 18-wheelers that are transporting certain cargo across state lines.
These FMCSA rules exempt the truck driver from the established HOS Rules. The first exemption was issued by FMCSA in March 2020. That FMCSA order was extended on April 8, 2020. It was extended a second time last week, on May 13, 2020.
Now, the COVID-19 version of HOS Rules is in effect through June 14, 2020 (unless and until another FMCSA Order pushes back that effective date).
For truck drivers who meet the criteria of the Emergency HOS Rules, they are allowed to drive without the constraints of the standard HOS regulations applicable to other truckers.
Those hauling the defined COVID-19 cargo across state lines do not have to follow the standard HOS Rules. They can drive without worrying about the hours they are driving and taking scheduled, logged rest breaks, unlike other truckers on the road.
FMCSA does require that once the truck driver is finished with his or her COVID-19 related delivery, he or she gets a rest period of ten (10) hours off duty after transporting property (or eight (8) hours after transporting passengers).
For more details on the COVID-19 HOS Rules, read our earlier discussion in “Coronavirus: Truck Driver Dangers of Injury and Accident in Indiana and Illinois.”
2. New HOS Rules Effective in September 2020
This week, FMCSA announced that HOS Rules would be changed once again with the new regulations being effective in September 2020.
Specifically, four changes have been made to the current Hours-of-Service Rules:
- If driving in adverse conditions, truck drivers may extend their driving window by up to two hours;
- Drivers may take their 30-minute rest period after driving eight (8) consecutive hours of driving (which changes the current rule, which requires the trucker to take a rest break within that eight hour time period).
- Two rest periods can meet the 10-hour off-duty requirement for truck drivers beginning September 2020. Right now, truckers must take one 10-hour rest period each day, and spend at least eight (8) hours in their berth. After September 2020, the truck driver can have one period of seven (7) hours in the truck cab’s sleeper berth, and at least two (2) hours logged outside the berth.
- Beginning in September 2020, short-haul truck drivers have to meet the same HOS Rules as long-haul drivers, with short-haul being defined with an air-mile radius of 150 air miles.
For details, read: FMCSA Hours of Service Drivers Final Rule (May 14, 2020).
Safety Advocates Collectively Warn of Fatal Crash Dangers from Relaxing HOS Regulations
On May 14, 2020, a joint press release from a group of respected safety advocacy organizations was issued, voicing their shared shocked concern over these changes to commercial truck safety regulations. Among their warnings (quoting from their release):
- Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety President Cathy Chase: “Deaths from crashes involving large trucks are skyrocketing with nearly 100 people being killed and over 2,800 more being injured every week on average. Any regulatory changes should be focused on reducing this preventable death and injury toll. Extending truck drivers’ already highly demanding work days and reducing opportunity for rest will endanger the public. The rule issued today contradicts the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s statutory duty to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities. At a time of national crisis, the Administration should step up and protect truck drivers who have been heroically delivering essential goods and supplies, not put forth dangerous and deadly detractions from current safety policies.”
- International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa: “Allowing truck drivers to work longer and longer each day puts everyone on the roads at risk. Many of these ‘reforms’ are shameful giveaways to industry. They fly in the face of the scientific evidence that was the cornerstone of the hours of service regulations, rules that required sensible limits on how long a driver could be on the job each day. Proposals like expanding the short haul exemption for local delivery and waste drivers will hit Teamster members the hardest. This specific change would allow drivers to work 14 hours a day without a single federally protected break during their day. That’s the wrong way to go for safety and a slap in the face to the men and women who work tirelessly to keep our country moving.”
- Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) Chair and of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) former Administrator Joan Claybrook:“It’s no coincidence that this latest effort to expand hours of service began once truck companies and drivers were required in 2017 to objectively verify their driving time by using electronic logging devices to ensure compliance with federal rules. We know that in the past, skirting the rules or falsifying hours of service records was common and widespread. Now that it is harder to do, segments of the industry have been clamoring to eviscerate hours of service limits and pushing dangerous changes like the ones issued today.”
- Truck Safety Coalition President Dawn King: “My father, Bill Badger, was killed just before Christmas in 2004 when a tired trucker fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into Dad’s car. The driver stated that he had been driving all night. We cannot allow safety to be compromised in the name of flexibility, which is just a code word for danger and deregulation.”
Semi-Truck Crashes in Indiana and Illinois: Coronavirus Epidemic and Beyond
As advocates for those who have died in fatal truck crashes here in Indiana and Illinois, as well as their grieving loved ones, we share the concerns of these safety groups.
We respect our commercial truck drivers, and recognize that they have one of the most dangerous jobs in our country. The work of our truck drivers is vital and important at all times, but especially so during this unprecedented time of Coronavirus Quarantines.
It is from that perspective that the relaxation of regulations implemented to make the roads safer for truck drivers gives great concern over the rising danger of a serious or fatal truck crash here in Indiana and Illinois.
Drivers who are tired and exhausted on the road run the very real risk of a serious collision that may result in their death as well as those sharing the roads with them. As NHTSA warns, the number of truck crash fatalities is the highest it has been since 2007.
With the current relaxation of the HOS Rules for any COVID-19 haul as well as the permanent change in HOS Rules in a few months’ time, the danger of semi-truck crash fatalities is high and will undoubtedly rise.
For more, read:
- Commercial Truck Crashes: FMCSA’s New Study Because of Rising Number of Fatal Semi-Truck Accidents
- Daylight Saving Time Fatal Accidents: Sleep Deprivation and Deadly Injuries in Indiana and Illinois
- Inadequate Truck Driver Training and Fatal Truck Crashes in Indiana or Illinois
- How Deadly Are the Roads in Illinois and Indiana? New 2020 National Safe Roads Report Card
The laws of Indiana and Illinois provide avenues for justice to both the truck driver (and his or her family) who has been pressured to stay on the road while tired, as well to other victims of a fatal truck crash. Please be careful out there!
