Trucking Hours of Service Management Systems - The Key Actors

Introduction

Welcome to article five of ten in this series on trucking company safety systems!  Past articles in this series have explored the roles of systems in trucking companies, and have also dug into some of the specific purposes safety management systems have at trucking companies.

In this article, I will be examining parts of the carrier’s safety management system that are used to manage compliance with hours of service (HOS) regulations.  My intention here is not to tell the reader how to manage HOS compliance; instead, I want to show the reader the different roles within the overall management system, that not all of these roles are under the control or even influence of the carrier, and that all of these roles provide valuable input for the system.

But first, let’s briefly describe the differences between HOS management and fatigue management.

Fatigue Management versus HOS Management

Hours of service (HOS) are rules that specify how much time a person may spend working before they must stop and rest.  People that have worked their maximum legally-permissible amount of time may not drive commercially until they have taken a specified amount of time off as rest time.

HOS rules vary between jurisdictions.  In Canada, there are Federal HOS rules that apply to Federally regulated carriers [1].  The Province of Alberta has its own HOS rules for Provincially regulated carriers [2].  The USA has HOS rules for interstate carriers that are different from either of the aforementioned Canadian rulesets [3].

The HOS rules in North America are a source of controversy within the trucking industry, and sleep and fatigue experts know that the safety-related problem of fatigued driving is not solved by simply complying with HOS regulations [4].  Drivers can comply with HOS regulations and still be too tired to drive safely.  From my own personal experience as an over-the-road truck driver, I have completed days where I have used all of my legally-available working time and had to stop despite feeling perfectly safe to continue.  Other times, I have had to stop driving and rest even though I had remaining hours on my clock.  I understand that simple compliance does not equal safe driving.

Safety laws create the minimum standard for safe operations; it is not acceptable to break the rules.  However, carriers that are 100% compliant with HOS regulations are not necessarily star performers in fatigue management.

Fatigue management goes beyond HOS management and focuses on ensuring workers are sufficiently rested to perform tasks without undue risk from mental and physical fatigue.  A driver may be compliant with HOS regulations when starting their day at 1:00am to make an early-morning delivery appointment.  However, such a start time is discordant with most people’s circadian rhythm, and if this driver is not properly acclimated to this work shift, they are likely operating under the influence of fatigue.  To better control for risks related to fatigue, carriers need to look at their operations and not just at the data contained within their drivers’ logbooks and electronic logging device (ELD) records. 

Fatigue management is a complicated subject, and the most important point I want to make here is that addressing hazards related to fatigue requires more than ensuring drivers are compliant with HOS regulations.  HOS compliance management is important and a legal necessity, but safety professionals should not assume that violation-free driver HOS records mean that hazards related to fatigue no longer pose a significant risk.

Actors in the HOS Compliance System

In the last two articles, I have described actors involved in parts of carrier safety management systems, and I have defined my use of the word “actor” as a role that plays a part in a system.  “Role” does not necessarily refer to a single individual; rather, it describes a set of responsibilities and an overarching purpose that may be held by one person, a group of people, or just be part of a single person’s job description. 

The following subsections will describe the interaction of various actors with a carrier’s hours of service (HOS) compliance system.

Driver

Drivers are tasked with maintaining compliance with the HOS regulations of their carrier and jurisdiction.  This is an interesting position in which to be since drivers are also the subject of the HOS regulations, meant to be protected by the HOS regulations, and often under conflicting economic pressures to exceed the HOS regulations.  As a result, the relationship between drivers, carriers, and HOS compliance is one of great complexity, nuance, and controversy. 

Without diving too deep into the conflicts that often arise within carriers that negatively impact HOS compliance, economic pressures on drivers from piecework pay structures (ie. pay by the mile, percent revenue, pay by the delivery) create incentives for drivers to exceed their HOS limits in an effort to increase their pay [5].  Given that this is a common occurrence within the industry, carriers that want to improve HOS compliance and better manage worker fatigue will, at some point, need to examine their pay deals as part of their safety program.  Otherwise, HOS compliance management will continue to have an adversarial element.

Non-Driving Workers

Other workers at a carrier have a role to play in HOS compliance.  Load planners, salespersons, dispatchers, maintenance workers, and anyone else who may be able to influence a driver’s schedule is in a position to potentially pressure a driver to violate HOS regulations.

As a result, all such workers require a basic understanding of HOS regulations, why they exist, and that HOS coercion is a serious offence.  Non-driving workers who are directly responsible for setting schedules for drivers need to make plans that are congruent with HOS rules.

Safety Manager and Coordinators

The safety manager, their system coordinators, and other staff with a safety and compliance role must be well-versed in HOS rules.  They need to ensure that drivers are trained in HOS compliance as well as in logging their time in whatever system the carrier has chosen; they represent, after all, the most logical contacts for drivers to ask compliance-related questions.

Carrier safety management must also regularly monitor HOS records for compliance and, when violations are discovered, bring them to the attention of the driver in question and take appropriate action to ensure future compliance.  Electronic logging devices (ELDs) frequently employ software to detect violations, but a robust HOS monitoring program should include some manual record auditing against supporting time-stamped documentation like fuel receipts to ensure that the ELDs are functioning correctly and not themselves victims of tampering.

Carrier Management

The senior management or owners of a trucking company are ultimately responsible for the safe operation of their company.  Since safety management rarely has the ultimate decision-making authority at a carrier, senior management needs to follow through on recommendations for reducing the risk posed by fatigue when making operational decisions.

Shippers, Receivers, and Brokers

In Canada’s Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations, Section 4 states that “No motor carrier, shipper, consignee or other person shall request, require or allow a driver to drive and no driver shall drive if” they are not in compliance with the HOS regulations or pose a danger to anyone’s safety [1].  Clearly, this legislation places the responsibility for HOS compliance on more than just the driver.

Shippers, receivers, brokers, and other individuals who are not controlled directly by the carrier but still have an interest in the timely delivery of freight hauled by the carrier are in a position to pressure commercial drivers.  The fact that they are not carrier employees does not excuse behaviour that coerces drivers to break the rules and drive tired.

Carriers should be receptive to concerns their drivers express over customers that are too demanding.  While businesses want to please their customers, carriers should not allow customer-pleasing to override their HOS compliance system.  Not only is this important for safety reasons, but in today’s world of driver labour shortages, carriers need to listen and respond to the concerns of their drivers in an effort to improve retention.

Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Officers

Commercial vehicle enforcement officers are actors in the HOS compliance system that are not controlled by the carrier and are only concerned with ensuring that drivers are compliant with HOS regulations and fit to drive.  This last point is important: a driver that appears to be too ill or fatigued to drive can be stopped by law enforcement even if they have time remaining in their legal allotment of hours.

When enforcement officers discover HOS violations in the ELD of paper log records of a driver, the carrier’s HOS compliance system needs a way to respond to these violations.  A proper response to a violation not only includes the paying of any associated fines but also the assurance that the driver understands the problem and that the carrier’s driver training program adequately addresses HOS rules.  Violations are not lessons for drivers only: they represent opportunities for whole-system improvement.

Occupational Health and Safety Officers

HOS enforcement is the domain of transportation-related law enforcement.  However, occupational health and safety (OHS) officers are concerned with all aspects of worker health and safety, and a workplace incident where fatigue was a factor can result in OHS involvement.  In Alberta, employers are obligated to ensure the “health and safety and welfare” of their workers [6], and hazards related to fatigue require employer intervention like all other identified hazards.

While traffic collisions may not be typically tended to by OHS officers, when OHS officers inspect the safety management system of a carrier they will be looking for the identification of hazards to worker health and safety and employer action to address these hazards.  Yes, HOS compliance is a form of fatigue hazard control in the trucking industry.  However, as I mentioned above when discussing fatigue management, carriers interested in truly protecting the health of their workers need to examine their operations to make sure that drivers are not only able to comply with the HOS rules but are also able, during their rest breaks, to obtain truly restorative sleep.

Summary

Charles Darwin said that a “willing horse is always overworked” [7].  Given the natural willingness of people to maximise their paycheques and the prevalence of productivity-based pay structures in the trucking industry, drivers can easily find themselves caught between conflicting messages from different actors in their carrier about the importance of HOS compliance.

Reliable HOS compliance and adequately-rested drivers require safety management that understands all roles within the organisation and carrier culture that is receptive to driver concerns.  In the long run, no one benefits from drivers and carriers that are overworked.

References

1 - “Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations”, SOR/2005-313, Government of Canada, accessed September 14th, 2021, https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2005-313/

2 - “Drivers’ Hours of Service Regulation”, AR 317/2002, Province of Alberta, accessed September 14th, 2021, https://www.qp.alberta.ca/1266.cfm?page=2002_317.cfm&leg_type=Regs&isbncln=9780779818464

3 - “Part 395 - Hours of Service of Drivers”, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, Code of Federal Regulations for the United States of America, accessed September 14th, 2021, https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-395

4 - “Driver Fatigue”, Chapter 5, Safety for the Long Haul, Dr. Ronald R. Knipling, published by The American Trucking Associations, 2009.

5 - “The economics of long work hours: how economic incentives influence workplace practice”, Industrial Health, 58(5), 399–402. Dr. Michael H. Belzer, 2020, accessed September 17th, 2021, https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealthh.58_500

6 - “Obligations of employers”, Section 3, Occupational Health and Safety Act, SA 2017 O-2.1, Province of Alberta, accessed September 17th, 2021, https://www.qp.alberta.ca/1266.cfm?page=O02P1.cfm&leg_type=Acts&isbncln=9780779821907

7 - “Letter 782.  To Anthony Rich. Down, February 4th, 1882.”, More Letters of Charles Darwin (Complete), Charles Darwin, published by The Library of Alexandria, accessed September 17th, 2021, https://books.google.com/books?id=xWcjAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT1236&lpg=PT1236&dq=The+willing+horse+is+always+overworked.&source=bl&ots=lcr46jasEb&sig=YiqC-FazKZhWfAY4wokwPikfA2s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFnMa615zVAhUBPpQKHW4rBqUQ6AEIRTAG#v=onepage&q=The%20willing%20horse%20is%20always%20overworked.&f=false