DC Velocity - March 2013

transportationreport TRUCKLOAD

according to Todd Spencer, executive director of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

“Drivers need flexibility in the hours they have so they can rest when they need to rest,” he said. “Fatigue isn’t always predictable. Some days, you feel like you need that rest. Some days, you feel that you do not.”

SPLIT DECISION

Opponents can take comfort in the FMCSA’s uneven history of defending its positions in court. HOS regulations have been delayed before, and they could be delayed again, they reason. But a court suffering from “HOS fatigue” could simply defer to the agency’s judgment and decide not to stay the enforcement.

Whichever direction the legal
worm turns, it is unlikely a ruling
will come sooner than late spring or
early summer, according to Thomas
E. Bray, HOS expert at J.J. Keller &
Associates Inc., a Neenah, Wis.-
based consultancy working with
carriers to prepare for the changes.

Even those who think the courts may order a delay of some kind believe the time for discussing the topic is over, and the trucking supply chain needs to get busy.

“This is one of those issues that is easy to sit around and complain about, but we’re past that,” said Derek J. Leathers, president and COO of Omaha, Neb.-based truckload carrier Werner Enterprises. For his part, Leathers expects the rhetoric leading up to the enforcement date to become so heated that it will compel the court to impose a delay.

Measured by capacity reductions, the productivity loss to truckers is expected to be 2 to 3 percent on the low end, and “worse on the high end,” according to Leathers. Michael P. Regan, president of Elmhurst, Ill.-based consultancy TranzAct Technologies, said based on conversations with multiple carriers, he estimates the reduction in miles will run from 7 to 8 percent for tandem drivers, to 9 to 12 percent for solo drivers.

Eric Starks, head of Nashville, Ind.-based consultancy FTR Associates, expects a significant tightening of capacity at least through the rest of the year if enforcement takes effect as scheduled. This will lead to a pricing pop as carriers use driver capacity rationalization—the higher costs of paying existing drivers and finding new ones—to raise freight rates, he predicted. Ironically, the higher prices will benefit all carriers whether they are ready on July 1 or not, Starks said.

Gary Palmer, senior director of transportation for True Value Co., a Chicago-based cooperative that runs a private fleet serving 5,000 company-owned hardware, equipment rental, and lawn and garden stores, is expecting a 3- to 5-percent reduction in his company’s route capabilities, and a 2- to 3-percent rise in operating costs.

Palmer said the magnitude of the adjustments will depend on overall economic conditions and the willingness of the stores—which are independently owned and which receive shipments on fixed delivery schedules—to work with the company to reconfigure their routes. So far, some of the storeowners have been cooperative, while others haven’t, he said.