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Award-Winning Regional Journal of the Arkansas Trucking Association
Arkansas Trucking Report is owned by the arkansas Trucking
association, inc. and is published bimonthly by Matthews publishing
group. For additional copies, to order reprints of individual articles or
to become a subscriber to ATR, contact Julia Hamra at 501.372.3462.
publisher HoS FaTigUE
JENNIFER MATThEWS KIdd
Matthews Publishing group, jennifer@matthewspublishing.com Much has been written about the new hours-of-service rules. Not
executive editor
LANE KIdd many people in the industry are happy and even fewer know what to do
contributing writers
STEVE BRAWNER JENNIFER BARNETT REEd about this seemingly endless cycle of change in the number of hours a
brawnersteve@mac.com jbreed13@gmail.com
SAM EIFLINg JohN SChULz commercial truck driver may work.
sameifling@gmail.com jdschulz@aol.com
ERIC FRANCIS Todd TRAUB
eric.francis@yahoo.com toddtraub@centurytel.net Let’s take the issue down to its basics. Because that’s where the problem
CALLIE hoyT
calliehoyt@truckingalliance.org and the solutions can be found.
art director
JoN d. KENNEdy
The Freelance Co. LLC, freelanceco@comcast.net Not long after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) was created, the
production editor
ShANNoN NEWToN agency began looking at ways to reduce the number of fatalities involving big trucks. That is
ad production essentially the agency’s only charge.
dEAh ChISENhALL, MARIA TEETER-WALKER, dUSTy ToWNSENd
illustrator
BRENT BENNETT The hours-of-service rules, or HOS, regulate the number of hours a truck driver may operate
brentdraw@att.net
photographers his vehicle in a week. So, naturally, those HOS rules became the cornerstone for the FMCSA
JoN d. KENNEdy, BoB oCKEN, JohN dAVId PITTMAN
in figuring out how to reduce accidents. The logical observation was (and is) that if you can
reduce the number of hours, or improve the rest times, you can reduce driver fatigue, and if
you can reduce driver fatigue, you can reduce the number of accidents.
www.arkansastrucking.com
president There were other factors that bolstered that view. A casual observer will see that a truck driver
LANE KIdd
lanekidd@arkansastrucking.com can drive as many as 11 hours with a brief break and work about 60 hours in a week. Most
vice president wage earners put in 40 hours a week. If asked if they want to drive a truck, most folks would
ShANNoN SAMPLES NEWToN
shannonnewton@arkansastrucking.com pass on the job right there.
director of operations
SARAh NEWMAN ShEETS
sarahsheets@arkansastrucking.com Secondly, the business model by which truck drivers work also confuses the observer. The
public relations coordinator
JULIA hAMRA
juliahamra@arkansastrucking.com majority of truck drivers are paid by the number of miles they drive. Drive more miles, make
executive assistant more money – pretty simple to figure out how one might abuse the HOS rule.
KATIE ThoMASoN
katiethomason@arkansastrucking.com
special projects assistant Third, it’s easy to lie. Truck drivers are permitted to verify they are complying with the law by
TAMARA RoBINSoN
tamararobinson@arkansastrucking.com
ChAIRMAN oF ThE BoARd filling out a sheet of paper. We permit 3.2 million truck drivers to work on the honor system.
gARy SALISBURy
Fikes Truck Line
President & CEo So, the regulators looked at those factors – coupled with the tragedy of more than 4,000
BoARd oF dIRECToRS
MARR LyNN BEARdEN MARK MoRRIS people who are killed and tens of thousands more who are injured each year in accidents
Marrlin Transit, Inc. Morris Transportation, Inc.
President President involving big trucks and concluded that driver fatigue must be the culprit. Restrict their hours
ALLEN BERRy dR. JohN ozMENT
Central States Manufacturing, Inc. U of A/Walton College of Business of driving and the accidents will come down.
Transportation director Chair of Transportation
gREg CARMAN PAT REEd
Carman, Inc. FedEx Freight
President Executive Vice President & Coo But what if the FMCSA is wrong? What if truck driver fatigue isn’t the real culprit? What if
dAN CUShMAN g.E. “BUTCh” RICE III
P.A.M. Transportation Services, Inc. Stallion Transportation group other factors cause most accidents?
President & CEo President & CEo
CRAIg hARPER TRACy RoSSER
J.B. hunt Transport, Inc. Walmart Transportation
Executive Vice President & Coo Senior Vice President Well, there’s only one way to find out. The electronic onboard recorder (EOBR) also known
AL hERINgER IV Roy SLAgLE
Star Transportation, Inc. ABF Freight System, Inc. as the electronic logging device (ELD) will go a long way toward setting the record straight.
Vice President President & CEo
BLUE KEENE JEFF SMITh Tracking the number of hours electronically that a driver operates and doesn’t operate his
Tyson Foods, Inc. Utility Tri-State, Inc.
Transportation director President truck will give us the data we need.
SCoTT MANChESTER WAyNE SMITh
Truck Centers of Arkansas Wayne Smith Trucking, Inc.
Vice President, Truck Sales President
MIKE MCNUTT VICKI JoNES STEPhENS Congress mandated them last year to go into every commercial truck and the FMCSA is closer
distribution Solutions, Inc. C.C. Jones, Inc.
CEo, owner President to announcing the rule and the clock will start ticking. Within two or three years, every truck

RodNEy MILLS STEVE WILLIAMS
USA Truck, Inc. Maverick USA will have them and the paper log book will be history.
Vice President & general Counsel Chairman & CEo
EOBRs won’t lie. Their data will show exactly when those accidents occurred and to a great
degree, if fatigue was a factor. And if it isn’t fatigue (as most suspect the data will show) what
an affiliate of the american Trucking
associations are the factors? The quicker those EOBRs get into the trucks, the quicker we can get off this
Arkansas Trucking Association (ATA) is an Arkansas corporation of trucking
companies, private carrier fleets and businesses which serve or supply the HOS merry-go-round.
trucking industry. ATA serves these companies as a governmental affairs
representative before legislative, regulatory and executive branches of
government on issues that affect the trucking industry. The organization also
provides public relations services, workers’ compensation insurance, operational
services and serves as a forum for industry meetings and membership relations.
For information, contact ATA at:
1401 West Capitol, Suite 185 Lane Kidd
Post office Box 3476 (72203) Drivers Legal Plan
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 President, Arkansas Trucking Association
Phone 501.372.3462 Fax 501.376.1810
www.arkansastrucking.com lanekidd@arkansastrucking.com
Drivers Legal Plan
arkansas Trucking reporT | issue 4 2013 7