Hints on Hours of Service Regs for Truckers

By 250 News

Although the final word has yet to be made officially public, there are indications truckers can expect the new regs for hours of service to call for 13 hours  driving, 2 hours for service.

At a seminar presentation at Forest Expo in Prince George,  Ivor Marriott of the Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement Branch indicated the new regulations will call for drivers to  have a daily maximum of 13 hours of driving, then 2 hours off for service and at least one 24 hour period per week off.

"I think what is really important here" says Mary Anne Arcand of the Forest Truck Safe program,  "is that we are finally being heard by government."  She says  the government  has responded well to calls from all levels for improvements to the roads, with its  committment of $20.7 million to upgrading forest service roads,  and in the awareness that  one size  does not fit all when it comes to  trying to develop an hours of service plan for loggers.  "I think its important that we have been able to share  the different situations faced by the different haulers in different parts of the province" says Arcand. 

Still, the Prince George Trucking Association isn't all that happy with the news.  "We will stand  behind our call for a straight 5 days of 12 hour shifts " says Stan  Wheeldon, President of the PGTA.  "We think  most of the  companies have at least two shows going, and it is possible to run a long haul from one, followed by a short haul from another."

Of course following the regulations may be another story,  as one trucker says,  "if the hours prove to be unrealistic, then the log books will just make liars our of honest men"

The new regulations are  expected to be officially outlined  within a couple of weeks, and will likely take effect January 1st  of 2007.

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