Werner Enterprises Granted Unique U.S. DOT Hours-of-Service Exemption
Werner Enterprises, Inc., one of the nation's largest truckload transportation companies, today hosted a ceremony at which it became the only trucking company in the United States to be Annette M. Sandberg, FMCSA Administrator, and Greg Werner, President and Chief Operating Officer of Werner Enterprises, formally signed the exemption at the Werner Corporate Training Center in Omaha.granted an exemption from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) agency to utilize its Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to record drivers' hours-of-service (HOS). Werner Enterprises' drivers are allowed to document their hours-of-service using a GPS-based paperless logging system as a replacement for paper logs.
Greg Werner, President and Chief Operating Officer of Werner Enterprises, said, "This is a great day which comes at the end of six years of hard work by many people. We continue to believe the use of technology will make our highways safer and are proud of the role Werner has played."
The two-year exemption is a milestone for Werner Enterprises and the trucking industry. After six years of pilot-testing and monitoring Werner's use of this GPS technology application since June 1998, the FMCSA approved the exemption that no longer requires Werner drivers to prepare handwritten paper records of drive and work time. Based on this experience, FMCSA stated its belief the exemption achieves a level of safety equivalent to, or greater than, that provided by using the current paper log system.
FMCSA Administrator, Annette M. Sandberg, formally signed the exemption at the Werner Corporate Training Center in Omaha. Recognizing Werner's outstanding creativity in the use of GPS to accurately track and report the work activities of truck drivers, Administrator Sandberg stated, "This supports Federal HOS regulations that help to ensure truck drivers get ample rest and, consequently, are more alert behind the wheel. Innovation and technology are critical to achieving our goal of improving safety on the nation's highways."