Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 27
Hours of Service
What You Need to Know
Driver work hours have been
regulated since the 1930s.
Department of Transportation
rules say:
* No driver can spend more
than 10 hours behind the
wheel daily.
* Once the 10-hour limit is
reached, a driver must rest
eight consecutive hours.
* A driver may only work up
to 60 hours per week (or
70 hours over eight days).
* All hours must be
documented.
* Exceeding hours is unsafe
and can result in a fine.
industry would not go for ELDs," adds
Goebel. "I don't care what size company
you are. The cost savings compared to the
manual logs-there's no additional cost.
When an ELD breaks on one of our buses,
our drivers hate it, because they have to go
back to using paper logs."
How did Young's customers react when
he installed ELDs? (Besides running
his own tours, Capitol also does for-hire
charter work.) "It was really difficult to go
back to a customer and tell him [that if his
itinerary stayed the same], we were going
to have to put in a relay driver."
Young says it took some convincing to
teach customers why a back-up driver-
an added expense-might be needed,
but, unfortunately, the ELDs did cause
Capitol to lose some business. "A few tour
operators said they wouldn't be able to
use us, because they knew their itineraries
were pushing the limits. They wanted a
company that would work those margins,"
Young recalls.
"The good news is that in December,
everybody's got to have ELDs," says Young.
"The playing field will be level again."
Like Young, Rob Teweles is also pleased
to see ELDs become mandatory. He's
director of sightseeing at WorldStrides,
an ABA member headquartered in
Charlottesville, Va. His team-one of five
divisions at this mega-size tour operator-
books around 8,000 coach days a season
with about 45 coach companies in the D.C.
area and mostly student travelers.
"I think the motorcoach and tour industries will adapt and ultimately thrive even
more because of ELDs," he says. "We've
been writing itineraries to be DOT-legal
for 50 years, so we've always made sure our
itineraries are legal."
His company's client literature also
advises customers not to ask drivers to
make unscheduled, add-on side trips. "We
make an extra effort not to let customers
go over," says Teweles. "If a coach company
is already behaving legally about hours, it
should like ELDs, because they will help
others come into line."
What does WorldStrides' clientele
think? "For the most part, our customers
have accepted ELDs," he says. "We paint it
as, 'It's the law.'"
Savvy motorcoach operators know how
important it is to explain ELDs to tour
operators. That's been the experience
of Christian Tours/Burke International
Tours Inc., an ABA member based in
Maiden, N.C. "Our customers' response
has depended on how well we've educated
them," says Heather Paul, the company's
customer service and personnel director.
"When we first put them in, we reached
out to every customer and said, 'Please
be flexible with us until we get this under
our belts.' " Her company has found that,
by and large, when "we make customers
conscious of the safety reasons for ELDs,
they listen." They adjust tours either by
shortening an itinerary or paying for a
relay driver, she says.
ELDs have also made drivers-and tour
and motorcoach operators alike-far more
conscious of every minute spent at the
wheel. "What we did not anticipate being
a problem was how much time it takes a
driver to drop a group at a restaurant, go,
park, sign out, then crank up 15 minutes
before the group leaves (to cool the bus
interior), and pick them up," says Paul.
Those are all minutes often spent in a parking lot that most drivers normally would
not have logged on paper.
For some tour operators, ELD problems
have arisen because-after planning a tour
a year in advance-they were advised near
the departure date that their itinerary
won't fly, because it would kick a driver into
an overtime violation.
"There've been some last-minute
panic moments when everyone didn't
understand the repercussions," says Max
Felty, president of Gettysburg Tours and a
member of the board of directors of ABA
member Gettysburg Group Reservations
in Gettysburg, Pa.
He's seen cases where student groups
had planned to spend two hours doing a
Gettysburg driving tour during a one-day
drive between two East Coast cities.
Unfortunately, the time on the road in
Gettysburg would have caused the driver to
exceed his daily limit.
The solution? The students transferred onto one of Felty's buses. "My
company's been able to be a stopgap.
It's less expensive for tour operators to
hire me (and my drivers) for two hours
for a battlefield or evening ghost tour
than for them to pay the coach company
for another driver," he says. And in D.C.,
due to heavy traffic, WorldStrides has
taken the similar step of using in-town
hourly drivers.
Of course, whether or not ELDs will
work as planned ultimately depends on
drivers and how well they use them. At
Christian Tours, "the learning curve for
drivers has been very successful," says Paul.
"It's reminded our drivers to have good
habits. ELDs will teach them the proper
way to log in and will constantly tell them
how many hours they have in their day."
"If management embraces ELDs as
a positive, drivers will accept them,"
says Young. "It's a culture change
within your business. Everyone in your
company who interacts with customers
has to embrace this as a positive for the
industry for safety."
Chapel Hill, N.C.-based freelance writer
George Spencer is a frequent contributor
to Destinations.
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017
\ DESTINATIONS 27
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017
Fun on the Farm
Gems of the Hudson Valley
Rolling Strong … and Healthy
Stones River National Battlefield
Traveling Together Is More Fun!
#ABACharlotte Action Items
Shop for a Great Cause!
Be Ahead of the Curve!
Snow ’n Sun Fun
It’s Never Too Late to Learn!
ELDer Care
Tour Stop: Temple Square
City Guide// MONTRÉAL
Travel Resource
Receptive Operators
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Cover1
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Cover2
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 1
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 2
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 3
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 4
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 5
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Fun on the Farm
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Gems of the Hudson Valley
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Rolling Strong … and Healthy
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Stones River National Battlefield
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 10
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Traveling Together Is More Fun!
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - #ABACharlotte Action Items
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Be Ahead of the Curve!
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 14
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 15
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Snow ’n Sun Fun
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 17
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 18
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 19
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 20
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 21
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - It’s Never Too Late to Learn!
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 23
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 24
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 25
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - ELDer Care
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 27
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Tour Stop: Temple Square
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 29
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 30
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 31
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - City Guide// MONTRÉAL
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 33
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Travel Resource
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 35
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 36
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 37
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 38
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 39
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 40
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 41
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 42
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 43
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 44
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 45
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Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 72
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 73
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 74
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 75
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 76
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Receptive Operators
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 78
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 79
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 80
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 81
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 82
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 83
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 84
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 85
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 86
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Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - 88
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Cover3
Destinations Magazine - November/December 2017 - Cover4
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