New Hours of Service Recording Regulations

There are few industries where time matters as much as in commercial trucking. Demanding clients or perishable cargo can impose challenging deadlines. There may be temptation to stretch drivers too thin in order to keep up with the pace of business, but this is both dangerous and potentially illegal. Motivated by public safety concerns, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently adopted new Hours of Service recording regulations.

When unpaid invoices threaten your ability to be selective in the clients and deliveries that you take on, you may find that you are considering taking your chances with rules violations as you chase after the funds to close the gap. There is no need for such risk taking decisions, however, because factoring trucking offers a solution to the struggles associated with nonpaying clients. Contact the freight factoring professionals of TBS Factoring Service, L.L.C., at 800-207-7661 to learn more.

Details about the New Rules

With lives, public safety, and property at risk, the following were considered and approved in the new rules:

• Electronic recording devices will be mandatory onboard trucks in fleets found to be in violation of hours of service rules
• Drivers will have to document off-duty versus on-duty time
• Drivers will also be required to report when they are using the sleeping berth
• The devices will track the position of the truck during motion and at reported status changes

The new FMCSA-approved rules will go into effect as of June 1, 2012 so trucking companies have some time to prepare themselves for compliance and to spread out the cost of purchasing and implementing the relevant technologies. It was decided that new measures were necessary to prevent hours of service violation given the strong link between these incidents and crashes. Perpetual violation of these regulations can be dangerous.

Studies have demonstrated that among those carriers who have exhibited a rate of at least 10 % non-compliance on two reviews there is a crash risk 90% higher than that of the general population. One equivalent review represents a 40 % elevation of the same risk.

Contact Us

Let us help you to obtain the funds that you need to avoid be lured into making costly mistakes. Contact the freight factoring professionals of TBS Factoring Service, L.L.C., at 800-207-7661.