If you are like many Pennsylvania residents, you may well be concerned about fatigue experienced by drivers of semi trucks and other large commercial vehicles. This concern is understandable given the long and often lonely hours drivers spend on the road. When fatigued, the risk of an accident naturally increases and that puts not only the truckers but others on the roads at risk. In order to help prevent this from happening, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has developed what it calls its Hours of Service rule that drivers are supposed to follow.
This rule places a cap on the number of hours a driver can work in a week and in a day as well as how many of those hours may be spent driving versus performing other tasks. It also outlines the parameters for daily and weekly breaks. For truckers that operate vehicles carrying goods, a maximum of 14 hours in a given day may be worked so long as this period is preceded by at least 10 hours of being off duty. In that 14-hour period, only 11 hours may be spent driving.
Truckers may log 70 hours of work in an eight-day work week or 60 hours of work in a seven-day work week. For every eight hours worked, a break lasting at least 30 minutes must be taken.
if you would like to learn more about the rules and regulations governing the commercial trucking industry and how those are designed to keep the public safe, please feel free to visit the commercial vehicle crash compensation page of our Pennsylvania personal injury website.