Fun With HOS

I've noticed that readers of this blog seem to be particularly interested in articles with the "Stupidity" label. Of all the keyword labels listed down the right side of the page, Stupidity is by far the most popular. Okay, I'd probably click that one, too, if I was reading someone's blog.

Since Stupidity postings are so much fun to read, I thought I'd write another one. And the perfect topic presented itself last week - HOS.

I know, you've heard enough HOS stupidity to last you a lifetime. But I think this one is worth discussing. This particular issue came up as a result of a customer discussion. The issue concerns the Canadian HOS regs and the "24 hours off" requirement. Specifically:

"...no driver shall drive unless the driver has taken at least 24 consecutive hours of off-duty time in the preceding 14 days."

On its own, this is pretty confusing. I'm not sure the feds could have found a clunkier, less intuitive way of describing a requirement. But that's not the real problem. The real problem is that different provinces seem to have interpreted it differently.

Ontario interprets that to mean that you can drive for 14 days and take the 15th day off. If you look at their PowerPoint presentation covering the regs, you can see their calendar demonstrating this (slide 24).

However, BC disagrees. In their guidebook on the subject, they also have a calendar showing the time on/time off cycle (page 41). Their calendar is distinctly different from Ontario's. In fact, the BC guidebook seems to contradict itself - their calendar shows 1 day off every 14 (every second Friday off in the example), but their text says 1 day off in the preceding 14 days. Not the same thing.

So, which is it?

Can drivers drive for 14 days, then take the 15th day off? Or can they only drive 13 days before requiring a day off?

We expect our drivers to go out there and adhere to all the current regulations, operate their vehicles safely, and keep the freight moving at the same time. If we're not even clear what regulations we want them to follow, that's not very fair to ask.

I know there are clarifications coming later this year that will hopefully resolve this. And I know that there are lots of other gray areas that cause grief for drivers every day, but this one came up and I think it's a good example of stupidity. What do you think? How does your fleet interpret this reg?