The latest news on oil is bad. Not only are stores beginning to ration motor oil, but gas prices are rocketing towards that record high average price per gallon Americans paid back in 2022. To help put any sort of plug in the sinking ship that is the current gas and diesel supply, Washington is giving the truckers who transport those essential fuels the gift of longer days.
In U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s own words delivered Wednesday, the Department is temporarily adding “flexibility to its hours of service rules,” which means truck drivers who explicitly transport fuels like gas and diesel can now drive up to 16 hours a day for the next 90 days. Prior to this new “flex,” transport drivers were only allowed to run 14 hours within a 24 hour period, per Reuters.
Duffy’s reasoning for the recent and sudden changes to the actions will help “protect against shortages, lower costs for families at the pump and reduce strain on America’s agricultural producers.” In other words, keep trucks on the roads so that we keep the gas supply consistent and costs lower. He added, “Our great American truckers will continue to haul products that power America and keep our economy moving.” You know, the economy that seems to be benefitting everyone except for actual Americans.
Now, there’s a few rules that have been established to make sure everything goes well for this new rule. Truckers are only allowed to take advantage of the 16-hour days if they take the required rest breaks. Those drivers must also be in good standing and cannot have a conditional safety rating or active out-of-services orders. Lastly, a tired driver must find a place to take a break and rest. Any incidents are to be reported by carriers to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Extending hours of tired truck drivers carrying volatile liquids will be fine
All of this is good and dandy, but truck drivers already struggle to do this within current rules and regulations. And the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found fatigue to be a huge problem among truckers. Today’s electronic logbooks make it a little easier to keep track of how long a driver is on the road, but it doesn’t factor in a trucker’s long work hours that also mess with sleep cycles. IIHS reports that drivers behind the wheel for more than just eight hours are twice as likely to crash, which kinda contradicts the semi safety platform Duffy’s office has been riding to get rid of immigrant truck drivers make American roads safer.
Duffy’s literature also gives Americans a glimpse into what Washington is supposedly worried about which is running out of fuel, costs at the pump, and the costs about to rain down on Americans with everything else. Diesel prices are currently soaring to new heights and will take its toll as farmers fill up vehicles to take on the harvest season, and then pass that cost along to all the trucks that have to transport that food (also using diesel) across the country. Prices for everything are about to go up even more. And that’s not going to work in their favor come November.
It’s almost like it’d be easier if the bright minds in Washington just ended the war in Iran. But yes, let’s instead extend the hours of drivers operating some of the largest vehicles on the roads, who also transport the volatile precious liquid gold than can make a big boom if something goes inherently wrong.
