Hours of Service Waived for Propane Trucks

Because of shortages in heating fuel, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has waived hours of service rules for propane trucks.

Basic Federal Hours of Service essentially dictate that drivers of large trucks or commercial drivers going long distances can’t drive more than 11 hours without a 10 hour break to rest. These rules are frequently, willfully disobeyed by thousands of companies across the U.S. to keep profit margins high and worker payout low.

The rules exist, obviously, to protect public safety. Have you ever driven in traffic for nine or ten hours straight? Were you operating at top capacity in the ninth hour?

For crucial deliveries that can’t wait for breaks, alternatives do exist; you can have team drivers with a sleeper berth in the truck, so one driver can sleep while another drives. You can relay drivers by having them stationed 10 hours apart. Those alternatives, however, do give you a higher cost for workers.

Here at Metro Delivery, when we see that we have a long distance delivery, and the driver isn’t going to be able to make it back to Metro safely in one shift, we do generally build in a charge that allows us to get the driver a motel for the night and a stipend for meals. That loses us some potential clients who are looking for the cheapest possible delivery, but that’s never been our niche in the market anyway; our niche is doing crucial deliveries correctly and safely.

Strangely, considering National unemployment statistics, the argument is made that there just plain aren’t enough drivers to cover the business in an emergency situation like this, and so we have no choice but to allow drivers of propane trucks to drive nineteen hour days on the same icy, windy, snowy roads you drive to get your kids to school. This is not a good argument. If there are worker shortages, more workers need to be found and trained- and employed. Yes, there’s a cost for that. There could be costs to this suspension of rules, too-