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| HOS Post Implementation Analysis |
| This short-term analysis study will examine whether changes to Part 395 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for Hours-of-Service (HOS) that took effect in October 2005 have had any effect on the safety performance of motor carriers. Safety performance will be evaluated in terms of crash rates and HOS-compliance rates with FMCSA regulations.
For non-CDL drivers who drive within a 150-mile radius, the HOS changes allow them to extend their work day twice a week to 16 hours, while limiting them to 11 total hours of daily driving. The new rule also exempts them from logbook requirements. For long-haul drivers using sleeper berths, the changes require them to spend more consecutive hours in the sleeper berth in a single period. Hence, for short-haul drivers, the HOS provisions provide more flexibility, whereas for long-haul drivers using sleeper berths, they provide less. Since major changes to the HOS provisions impacted these two distinct segments of the motor carrier industry differently, the study will attempt to evaluate the changes in safety performance of them separately.
The longer-term study will evaluate whether the new HOS rule has had any effect on the safety performance of motor carriers in terms of crash rates. Data will be collected on approximately 1,000 crash cases and 2,000 non-crash cases and data will be acquired from a minimum of five different motor carriers. At least one carrier would be a regional or national truckload carrier, one a regional or national less-than-truckload carrier, and one private carrier. Researchers will also gather additional workforce or demographic information on drivers wherever possible.
The study will evaluate several major factors affecting the probability of a large truck crash, most prominently, the use (or lack thereof) of sleeper berths in a motor carrierÂ’s operations. Factors such as multi-day driving patterns, sleeper berth operations, time of day of travel driver experience, circadian effects and night operations, and short-haul operations will be evaluated. |
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