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November 21, 2011

Rule Change Worries Trucking Companies

Intransit Container Trucking transports freight to and from the Port of Worcester and other intermodal rail and shipping facilities throughout New England.

About half of its trucking routes could be impacted by a federal rule change coming down the road, said Steve Jones, Intransit’s vice president.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is weighing a change to the so-called “hours of service” rules that regulate how often and how long commercial drivers can be behind the wheel. The proposed change would reduce the amount of time truck drivers could be on the road from 11 hours to 10 hours for every 24 hours. It would also require more rest periods between midnight and 6 a.m., which many truckers consider prime driving time because there is less traffic.

Intransit’s round trips between Worcester and New York can sometimes exceed 10 hours in some instances.

“It’s usually within 10 hours, but it’s a highly congested area and it doesn’t take very much to turn it into a longer trip,” Jones said. “Sometimes you get stuck for an hour on the George Washington Bridge” in New York City. If they’re forced to stick to 10 hours, drivers would have to pull over and wait, turning a one-day trip into two.

“It would drive up costs,” Jones said.

And the company would have to pass on those costs to its customers, he added, ultimately increasing the price consumers pay for the goods being shipped.

Intransit is not alone in its concerns. The $563-billion trucking industry has lobbied against the 10-hour rule, arguing it will increase costs and inefficiencies while reducing driver pay.

Jones said there are better ways to ensure drivers are following the rules. Requiring electronic driver logbooks that can be monitored remotely, for example. “I think that would have a bigger impact,” he said.

Framing The Debate

Those pushing for the restriction point to a 1987 study from the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety, which concluded truck drivers behind the wheel for more than eight hours are twice as likely to be involved in an accident. On the other hand, the Teamsters union and highway safety groups have also claimed in letters to government officials that the new rule would create 40,000 trucking jobs in the country.

Meanwhile, the trucking industry points to federal data showing the number of fatalities from truck crashes is declining. The American Trucking Association also argues that regulators are underestimating the potential additional costs to the industry, which could be in the billions of dollars.

The proposed change is borne out of years of legal wrangling between the trucking industry, employee unions and safety advocacy groups, said Edward C. Bassett, a partner at Worcester law firm Mirick O’Connell who has advocated for the change. Bassett oversees Mirick’s personal injury litigation group, which represents victims of truck accidents.

“Will it be followed by litigation once again? Probably,” Bassett said.

Bassett admits the proposed change could increase costs to the trucking industry, but he said the reduction in accidents could save more money in costly lawsuits and settlements stemming from accidents.

Bassett characterizes opponents’ arguments as: “Our economy is weak right now so maybe we shouldn’t worry about lives.”

“To me it’s sort of outrageous,” he said.

Court Challenge?

Another logistics company watching federal regulators closely is Hopedale-based Braun’s Express.

Its operations manager, William Borek, said Braun’s truckload operation in Georgia and its locally based team, which has 30 drivers, would both be affected.

Braun’s would have to reprogram its onboard electronic log book systems and retrain drivers. Some routes the company runs every day would no longer be possible at that frequency, Borek said. And the company would have to pass along costs to its customers.

Whatever the final rule looks like, both Borek and Bassett won’t be surprised to see a lengthy court challenge from one side or the other. “This isn’t going to happen overnight,” Borek said.

Like many in the trucking industry, Borek questions whether a one-hour difference will make the roads any safer. “Everything we do is geared to (safety),” he said. “Our large customers demand it contractually.”

Braun’s Express, like many other trucking companies, point to an overall decrease in fatal accidents in the United States since 2004, when the 11-hour rule was implemented.

Fatal crashes involving large trucks increased from 4,335 to 4,478 that year and again to 4,551 in 2005, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, an arm of the DOT.

But fatal crashes have been on the decline since. In 2009, the number dipped below 3,000 for the first time in more than a decade to 2,987.

While transport companies may be concerned about the complications shorter driving hours could bring, Jones, of ICI Trucking, said he sees one potential benefit for his company.

Many of ICI’s competitors are located near Boston or in New Hampshire. Those companies will have a harder time making a New York run in the allotted 10 hours because they’re farther away.

“We’re closer to the 10-hour window,” he said. “They’re on the bubble."

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