Based upon these rules, you need to find a team partner or get ready to sit in some truck stop away from home on the weekends.

Lets all overreact to something that isn't gonna happen. BTW all those were submitted by the safety groups such as CRASH and the like as to what they wanted in the "new" rules.

Actually, some of us would be home all weekend (instead of just for one day) under these proposed rules. Heck, I'd LOVE to see those hours of service become law. Yes, I realize that I could potentially lose a little pay, but finally having two days off every week would work just fine by me. Disclaimer: I do NOT represent a very large portion of the industry. If I was still on 48-state, I'd never want hours of service like that. Where I am now, that's different.

The average truck driver stands to loose 25k a year from this proposal.

.30cpm x 65mph x 25 hrs lost x 52 weeks = 25,350

I don't know about you but that is not a small amount of money to me.

You're absolutely right. That is a fair chunk of change. However, something that I failed to mention was this. I normally drive about 8 hours a day as it is. The other 6 hours are usually on line 4. With this, I'd probably lose two hours of my day, give or take.
Also, it'd be nice if I still had one of those 65mph trucks.

You got off easy, my job will no longer exist if this goes through. My counterparts in East St. Loius and Albequerque won't be able to make their trips to swap and return in 8hrs. Which leaves me with my cheese hanging in the wind.

We need to express our views to the rule makers before any of this becomes law. Anyone can make suggestions or express their views as to how they would like for things to change or stay the same. If we had the same rules as now but with the ability to stop the clock and split our sleeper berth into 5 hours, that would work better for me. It would also work much better for teams. The problem with these groups such as CRASH or MADD, etc., is that they have never driven a truck. They only had a family member who was killed or hurt by someone who happened to be driving a truck so they now have a vendetta against anyone driving a truck. They think that they know best how we should sleep and work. I don't see the government doing something that will interfere to much of a degree with interstate commerce. Our economy relies on a strong and able trucking industry. The most likely changes will likely be an extension of the reset from 34 hours to 40 hours and our work day could be reduced to 10 hours. That is the most likely changes as it stands today. In any case, we need to make our voice heard to those who matter. Go online and find the rule and express your views. I don't recall the address, but it is on the OOIDA website.

Why does the governement think they have to create laws to structure when, where, and how, I sleep/drive anyway? It should be as simple as "drive when you're alert, sleep when you're tired." Would it really be that hard to enforce? The current HOS rules, and anything like THAT, only force me to drive when I'm tired and sit while I'm alert, which is exactly the opposite of their intention. I don't get it...

Well I guess you'd never be tired while driving again at 8 hours/day and sitting for 12-16 hours, but you'd sure as hell be bored...

It makes me more tired sitting around rather than working. Like I said, we all need to individually get on the federal website and make our views known. It doesn't take that much time and it should be done before comments are closed. I don't remember the time line. OOIDA is already involved and if you can't find the web address on their website then you could call them and get it. It doesn't do any good for us to complain to one another. We need to act and file our complaints or rather suggestions to the ones making the rules. You can rest assured that these nutty special interest groups are filing their views and likely getting volunteers to file to make it appear that many others share their view point.

Ferro expects HOS release in November

By Randy Grider

Anne Ferro, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Administration, said Nov. 8 she expects the White House Office of Management and Budget to release the new hours-of-service rule by the end of this month.

Speaking at the International Conference on Commercial Driver Health and Wellness in Baltimore, Ferro said, “To assist and review [the proposed rule], the department requested an additional 30 days, so we expect something within that 30 days. I think it will be sometime in November,” Ferro said. “That’s what we’re looking for.”

FMCSA submitted the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to the OMB July 26 and had expected the office to finish its review Oct. 26 The agency had scheduled the NPRM for a Nov. 4 publication date and planned to allow public comment until Jan. 4.

The OMB met Oct. 18 with representatives from the National Retail Federation, National Industrial Transportation League, Waterfront Coalition, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Retail Industry Leaders Association, American Bakers Association and National Association of Manufacturers. Federal officials did not provide additional meeting information.

A year ago, the FMCSA entered into a settlement agreement to revisit the current rule, issued in 2008, and publish a final rule by July 26, 2011. Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Truck Safety Coalition and the Teamsters union had brought suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which had previously struck down the agency’s 2003 and 2005 versions of HOS.

This 2009 agreement stipulates that if the FMCSA produces a new HOS rule, “substantially different” from the 2008 rule, this may eliminate the need for judicial review of the current regulation.

Ferro declined to comment about the specifics of the new rule.