Without more data on the extent detention time contributes to hours-of-service violations, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration may lack key information to reduce these offenses.
That was the conclusion of a Feb. 18 Government Accountability Office report, based on more than 300 trucker interviews, talking to stakeholders and research. The agency is in the initial planning stages of detention studies, the GAO said.
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) on Feb. 17 introduced H.R. 756, which directs the U.S. Department of Transportation to research trucker wait time and report results within a year of the bill’s passage. It was referred to committee without co-sponsors.
The DOT would issue a rulemaking within a year of that report on maximum hours drivers can be detained without compensation and set penalties for violations.
In that rule, the agency is to consider correlations between detention time and HOS violations and establish procedures for reporting violations, including electronic on-board recorder data.
Wait time costs are “largely born by truckers,” the report states. About 4 percent of drivers said they misrepresented hours in their log books and kept multiple log books to disguise incidents of violation of HOS due to detention time.
Drivers interviewed said detention fees to the shippers is usually for waiting more than two hours at the facility. The fee is based on the specific contract, but fees mentioned were $40 to $80 per hour.
