HOS: Duality & Delusion

"There is the ministry way and there is the industry way."  How many times have you heard that, or a similiar version of that, over the course of your driving career.  There is no doubt that the hours of service rules (HOS) are the most controversial and widely debated issue in the trucking industry.  Certainly from a drivers perspective.  They are the central pillar that our income and home time revolve around.  You would think that these rules would provide consistency and a level playing field across the industry.  But this is certainly not the case.

For years I have operated with the opinion that the HOS regulations are a set of guidelines that are open to my interpretation.  I can stretch them out to maximize my income and available work hours as long as I don't cross that line that sets off alarm bells for an enforcement officer.  An example of this is logging at the speed limit of each jurisdiction you travel in or logging the minimum amount of on duty time that is required for a pre-trip inspection, fuel stop, or pick up.  The net result of this approach is that you actually end up working well in excess of the hours that are mandated in the HOS rules.  Of late I have been asking myself what the personal cost of this approach is.

There is a physical cost.  Drivers are allowed to work up to 70 hours in 7 days.  Think about this.  This is close to the equivalent of 2 weeks work in most other industries.  Issues of fatigue, sleep debt, sleep apnea, poor eating habits and lack of exercise are some of the major factors that contribute to the high stress levels many drivers experience.  The health risks are high and underrated across this industry.  Yet as individuals we compound these issues by operating under the belief that the only way to get ahead is to work longer and harder.  The HOS rules, in the mind of many drivers, become an inhibitor to your productivity rather than an asset in managing your health and well being.  I have subscribed to that belief for most of my driving career.  I believe the 70 hour week is necessary in this industry to look after the needs of the customers we service and keep our employers healthy and on firm financial footing.  This is sensible.  I no longer believe we need to exceed those limitations in order to meet our personal goals and the goals of the employers we work for.

There is an emotional cost as well.  We (drivers) are well aware of the laws we must operate under.  Most of us work for companies that have policies in place that are punitive if we are caught working outside these laws.  Finally we must operate within our own value system.  We seldom discuss our own values of honesty and integrity and how operating outside of these value systems effects our own mental state of well being.  The emotional cost of operating on the outer fringes of compliance while compartmentalizing our integrity at the same time gets little, if any, attention at all within our industry.

We must deal with the duality.  There is the ministry way and there is the industry way.  It is time, as individuals, we found a unified path.  We need that level playing field.  We don't have to agree with all aspects of the HOS rules but we should be able to find a way, as individuals, to work within those rules.


We must deal with the delusion.  Does the only way to earn a decent living in the trucking industry involve working outside of the rules?   I don't believe so.  I believe that approach to be more herd mentality and group think than reality.  I have chosen to work within those rules over the past year with great success.  As I have stated in previous posts, we all have the ability to choose our own path.