The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has enacted regulations concerning limits to the Hours-Of-Service that truck drivers may drive. Anyone who drives a commercial motor vehicle must comply with these regulations.

Fatigue is a major cause of truck accidents. The effects of drowsiness have been shown to be as dangerous as being under the influence of alcohol. The Department of Transportation estimates that 755 deaths and 19,705 injuries result from fatigued drivers of all kinds of vehicles each year.

As of January 4th, 2004 the Hours-Of-Service rules say that a truck driver may not drive:

• More than 11 hours, after 10 hours of off-duty time
• Beyond the 14th hour after coming on-duty, following 10 hours of off-duty time
• After 60(or 70) hours on-duty in 7(or consecutive days

The 7 or 8 consecutive day period is reset after 34 consecutive hours of off-duty time.

Truck drivers are often expected to adhere to unreasonable delivery schedules by the companies they work for or they are paid by the miles that they drive. They are also subjected to many hours of uncompensated work each week as they wait on loading docks. This uncompensated time does count toward their on-duty time. This forces many of them to drive for unreasonable hours to make up for lost time.