Drivers skeptical as FMCSA releases HOS study details

In the first comprehensive scientific study on the subject involving real-world truck drivers, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has posted details of its $4 million plan for the congressionally mandated naturalistic study of the operational, safety, health, and fatigue impacts of the hours-of-service restart provisions. 
 
The 87-page outline of the plan explains how the research team will measure and compare the fatigue and safety performance levels of between 200 and 250 truck drivers who take two or more nighttime rest periods during their 34-hour restart break and those drivers who take one nighttime rest period during their restart break. 
  
Last December, Congress suspended two provisions of the current Hours-of-Service rules, pending the completion of this new commercial motor vehicle driver restart study. The study, which will pay drivers up to $2,166 for their time, calls for a variety of truckers—117 dry van operators, 34 flatbed drivers, 34 reefers and 22 tank truckers.
  
The plan details the assessment technologies being used, study procedures, and the sampling plan and data analyses.  The study will be conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
  
The issue is controversial because some trucking companies say the mandated 30-minute nighttime rest breaks needless add costs to fleets by decreasing productivity. Some truck drivers say the mandated breaks are not needed, and they should be the best judge of when they are fatigued. Others say taking the breaks between midnight and 5 a.m. merely adds to road congestion during other times.
 
Truck drivers would appear to be skeptical of the study, judging from comments on the subject on TruckDrivingjobs.com, a web site for drivers.
 
“Here is 31 years of study!” wrote one commenter identified as Jerry Thompson. “I am a professional in every means of the word professional driver! And here is my honest and very serious assessment. Throw the whole Hours of Service OUT THE DOOR! Leave us alone and let us do our job! Government and pin-headed college students don’t have a clue.”
  
The Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Restart Study is designed to use hard data to answer those questions scientifically. It plans to measure and compare the fatigue and safety performance levels of truck drivers who take at least two nighttime rest periods during their 34-hour restart break and those drivers who use one nighttime rest period during their restart break.
 
The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 by Congress directed FMCSA to conduct a commercial motor carrier driver restart study. In this study, FMCSA will compare 5-month driver work schedules and assess operator fatigue and safety critical events (SCEs) between the following two groups:
-Drivers who operate under the hours of service (HOS) restart provisions in effect between July 1, 2013, and December 15, 2014; and
-Drivers who operate under the provisions as in effect on June 30, 2013
  
The study will compare five-month work schedules and will assess SCEs (for example, crashes, near-crashes, and crash-relevant conflicts), operator fatigue and alertness, and short-term health outcomes of the two groups of CMV drivers. The sample of drivers, which FMCSA says will be large enough to produce statistically significant results, will include drivers from small, medium, and large fleets across a variety of operations (long-haul, short-haul, and regional). The study plans to include different sectors of the industry such as flat-bed, refrigerated, tank, and dry-van.
 
FMCSA says safety critical events, driver fatigue/levels of alertness, and driver health outcomes will be evaluated using a variety of methods, including:
-Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) (which track drivers’ time on duty);
-The Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) (which measures alertness);
-Actigraph watches (which assess sleep);
-Onboard monitoring systems and/or cameras that record or measure SCEs and driver alertness; and
-The Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) (which measures drivers’ assessment of sleepiness).
 
FMCSA says its project will include the development of an initial study plan and final report, each of which shall be subject to an independent peer review panel of individuals with relevant medical and scientific expertise. As part of this study, the Transportation Secretary will submit a plan outlining the scope and methodology to the U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General.
  
Data collection began in March. It is supposed to be finished by Sept. 30. But officials from FMCSA say that it likely will not be made public before the end of the year.