Perhaps the biggest change affecting the trucking industry and the shipping public so far this year is the revision to the federal hours-of-service (HOS) regulations for truck drivers, which took effect on January 4. That was the first major revision of those rules in more than 60 years.

While the impact of the changes has yet to be fully felt due to a 60-day "soft enforcement" period allowed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), we are already beginning to see that the truckload sector of the industry will be hardest hit.

Under the new rules, drivers are allowed to work 14 consecutive hours, 11 of which may be spent driving, following which they are required to stop work for 10 hours. The old rules allowed drivers to be on duty for 15 cumulative hours, 10 hours of which could be spent driving. They were then required to go off duty for 8 hours. The old rules allowed drivers to count as off-duty hours the time they took out for meals, time spent waiting for loading or unloading, personal time, and so forth. All of that now counts as on-duty time.

As a result of those changes, many truckload shippers are seeing higher freight charges, shorter "free time" for loading and/or unloading (after which carriers assess detention charges), and increased charges for stopping in transit to partially load or unload.

The rise in freight rates is largely due to the rules' impact on drivers' compensation. Recognizing that many drivers would see their earnings decline as a result of compliance with the new rules, Schneider National and a number of other major carriers quickly gave them pay increases ranging from $1,500 to $4,500 annually beginning February 1, in an attempt to keep pay scales on par with last year's levels. Those pay hikes have already led some truckload carriers to increase freight charges between 3 and 5 percent. More are expected to follow suit, particularly in light of the ongoing shortage of truckload capacity.

Because waiting time now counts as on-duty hours, some carriers have shortened the free time they allow for loading and unloading to just one hour, while others allow up to two hours. Many are assessing detention charges against offending shippers once that free time expires. One Wisconsin-based truckload carrier, Roehl Transport, is now charging upwards of $60 per hour for detaining a vehicle for more than one hour to load a dropped trailer or at a trailer pool location. That same fee applies after two hours for live loads.

Charges have also risen substantially for stopping in transit to partially load or unload. One carrier that previously charged from $25 to $50 per stop now charges $75 for the first stop, $125 for the second stop, and $250 for the third. We've heard of another carrier that is assessing $500 each for the third and successive stops. As a result of such costly stop-off charges, many shippers now are analyzing whether it would be cheaper to switch to LTL service instead of making multi-stop truckload shipments.

Shippers should be on the lookout for other potentially costly changes coming as a result of the new rules. At the same time, they should take a close look at how long motor carriers have to wait to be loaded or unloaded at their facilities, and how they can cooperate with their carriers to shorten waiting times.