Hours of service regulations in the United States and the 2013 rule change

• This paper analyzes the new hours of service regulations for truck drivers in the United States.
• It presents a novel methodology for assessing the impact of revised hours of service regulations.
• It presents experimental results indicating that the net benefit of reducing the daily driving time limit to 9 or 10 h may be positive.

This paper studies the revised hours of service regulations for truck drivers in the United States which entered into force in July 2013. It provides a detailed model of the new regulation and presents and a new simulation-based method to assess the impact of the rule change on operational costs and road safety. Unlike previous methodologies, the proposed methodology for assessing the impact of hours of service regulations takes into account that, by optimizing routes and schedules, carriers can minimize the economic impact of stricter regulations. Simulation experiments are conducted indicating that the monetized safety benefit of reducing the daily driving time limits is on the same order of magnitude as the increase in operational costs.