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Times on the High Iron -
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August 14, 2010
Look whose back! I know it has only been every bit of two years since I last put out one of these little diatribes, but life has been pretty much in the way for most of this time period. The wonderful baby evolved into the terrific toddler and now the precocious pre-schooler. She wants and gets a great deal of my free time. She’ll only be this age once so I am taking advantage of the time I get to spend with her while I can. Don’t worry though, I’m sure in a few short years she’ll believe I am an idiot, know nothing and am ruining her life. Most likely she’ll be right, but that is still in the future and not to be a worry for the present.
For those of you that would like to see her you can view this video and see her for yourself.
I would like to thank all of you that have been inquiring over the past 24 months or so to verify that I wasn’t dead or worse. It is refreshing to know you all care, or at least just want to read whatever I write.
It seems that when I have had some time to write, the creative juice stream had gone dry. When the stream was flowing, I was not in a position to actually write. The ideas always seem to flow while I am at work and never when I am at the computer. Well tonight, the moon is in the seventh sign and Jupiter has aligned with Mars and here comes some dribble out of my computer. So with my play list of music going in the background for inspiration, here pour the words from my mind to a screen near you.
Today we revisit the Hours of Service.
Several years ago I explained how the hours of service (HOS) works on the railroad. After years of screaming and complaining by many railroaders (the help, not the management), and after a few huge wrecks, particularly one that killed a bunch of civilians, congress acted to make some changes. One of the most noteworthy is the hours of service act. And as it would happen, on more instances than I can begin to recall, I have stated in matter of fact that it would take civilians getting killed as opposed to more railroaders getting killed. Everybody knows we are just a dime a dozen.
Many railroaders, me included were polled as to what we would like to see changed with regards to HOS. Being that I am long since accustomed to the twelve hour day, I saw no reason to shorten that. What I wanted to see was a restriction on total hours worked each month and a requirement for more rest time. One of my suggestions was that we be required to get as much time off as they made us work. For example, if they let us go dead and then sit and rot away for hours on the train awaiting a cab that “should be there any minute,” we should get that much time off duty for rest.
Well believe it or not, Congress actually took up some of these ideas. And of course, some of those that complained the loudest are now whining the most about the changes. Go figure! We’ll discuss that later.
Let us get into the meat and potatoes of the changes. If you are a vegan, it will be a very hearty portion of potatoes with no milk or butter.
First off, congress modified the HOS law with the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008. The new HOS became effective on 16 July 2009. With it, the twelve hour day remains the same. While we can still work twelve hours if we go past it we get additional rest time. So let’s say I go dead somewhere and then wait on transportation to the tie up point for, oh, two hours. Then we have a two hour ride to that very tie up point. This equals a total of sixteen hours on duty. What this means is that I get my required minimum of ten hours off plus four additional hours of rest. This is a penalty of sorts for the carrier failing to get me off the train and tied up in a reasonable amount of time. If they go fifteen minutes past the twelve I would get ten plus fifteen minutes.
Another key change was made with the minimum rest time as well. We now automatically get a minimum of ten hours undisturbed rest, no matter how little or how much time we are on duty up to twelve hours. This eliminates the eight on, eight off, eight back on and off again and again I have done more times than I can recall in my nearly thirty-two years on the job. In addition, the additional time required beyond the ten hours is also undisturbed rest. They cannot call me in eight hours to be back on duty in ten, or if beyond ten hours as mandated by the law before that additional time is expired. So this means twelve or more hours off. But, there is a twist; they can instruct us to return to work at a specific time prior to our tying up.
For example, upon our arrival at Champaign but before we go off duty, they can instruct us to show up right on our ten hours, or whatever rest that is required. They now, do not have to call us; we just show. They provide the transportation for us in advance. From a personal standpoint, I like this idea as it is a win-win for both the carrier and us. When we tie up we already know exactly when we will be back on duty. We also have the option to contact the railroad before our ten hours is up and ask if they want us to show at a time after our ten hours of rest (or more if required) instead of them having to wait to call us upon completion of our rest. This method eliminates them from having to give us a two hour call. But we are not required to make that call. If we do so, it us for our own personal benefit, which will also benefit the carrier.
The undisturbed rest means exactly that, they cannot call us at all during that ten hour period. I wish I had a one hundred dollar bill for every time over the years they called while I was sleeping. In some cases they called the wrong guy as I wasn’t rested. In other cases it was because they had questions about something that happened while I was at work previously. In several instances in the days when the conductor still carried waybills for the train, he would forget to turn them in before he went home. They would try to contact him and when that failed they would call the other members of the crew to see if they knew what happened to the bills. I was the engineer and did not know as I was not responsible for them but they called just the same and woke me up.
If they call us during the undisturbed rest period, it is required that they start our rest over at that moment in time. I have had this happen as have others. It was fairly frequent at first, but now doesn’t happen near as often; rarely would be more likely. In my instance, I wasn’t rested until 400pm. They called me at 315pm, technically disturbing my rest. Legally, I cannot take the call and have to inform them of such, which I did. The caller was not happy. I informed her that it was her requirement to notify the trainmaster and explain what happened. I waited about fifteen minutes and called the trainmaster. He was shocked and claimed the caller had not notified him. I wonder if she ever intended to call or just have them wonder where we were when 515pm came and there was no sign of us? So my rest had to restart at 315pm when the caller called and I could not be disturbed by them again until 115am.
Yes, I have to inform the caller of the violation immediately. The calls are now date and time stamped. If the FRA decides to come in and check and discovers the violation and my failure to make mention, I could be held responsible and be subject to a fine.
Now we can initiate a call to them during our undisturbed rest period without it being a violation. And they are allowed to return a call to us if we initiated the contact and asked them to call back about the specific issue that we called them about in the first place. They are not allowed to ask us about anything else unless we bring it up.
This may sound crazy, but I don’t appreciate being woken up and asked about a delay we took over the road on a previous trip. As sleep has been a premium, well more like a luxury in my life, far more than people outside of this industry (sleep deprivation is my middle name), I appreciate the fact that if they wake me up now, it will cost them.
Now for those on what are known as “show” jobs, those that have a regular starting time, they don’t get called and this change does not normally affect them. They show at the time specified in the bulletin that created their assignment. Should they work beyond twelve hours, this could affect the time they have to return. Say they work fifteen total hours, they would have to be off the required ten hours plus that extra three they went past twelve for a total of thirteen hours. They would then automatically just show on their rest even though it is later than their scheduled show time. They must get their required rest first and then show. Being that they are a regular show assignment, they don’t get a call and aren’t required to be instructed by an officer of the carrier when to appear.
Limbo time. As mentioned in the previous column this oddly named period of time after we expire on the HOS is not a dance that Chubby Checker performed. This has been a bone of contention for years. A judge that will never have to endure such a period in his life ruled that we are neither on, nor off duty when we die on the hours. Congress kind of agreed with this with ruling but with a twist. It is now officially called “Not On, Not Off” duty, or as I call it, “NoNo” time. Congress mandated that we are restricted to a total of thirty hours of NoNo time. When the new law took effect in July 2009, it was initially forty hours and reduced to thirty hours on 16 October 2009. This three month period gave the industry time to make adjustments and create plans to reduce the time formerly known as limbo time. For what it is worth, we call still call it just that, limbo time. Even the folks at the Federal Railroad Administration still use that term. Some names just cannot be won’t die and cannot be killed.
I have come close to the maximum thirty hours of a couple of times since it dropped to this number, but have not yet actually struck it. I’m sure you are wondering what happens if you do reach the magic number, so here comes that information. When going on duty and you are out of limbo time, you, the HOS employee, must inform the carrier upon reporting for duty that you are out of limbo time. The carrier must now get you off the train and tied up by the twelfth hour of service, they cannot let you go dead and wait upon transportation. Should they do so, they have violated the HOS. It must be reported to the FRA should this occur. There is a fine involved for such a violation that is paid by the carrier since they caused the infraction.
The other maximum imposed was something I had campaigned for over the years, a restriction upon the total hours per month we are allowed to work. The magic number here is two hundred seventy-six hours per month. Having been the veteran of far too many eighty-four and ninety-six hour work weeks, this is a Godsend for me. Once we reach this two hundred seventy-six hour figure, we are done for that month. While I have come close several times, I have yet to attain this magic number. If I were to have say two hundred seventy hours accumulated, when I get the call to work I would be required to inform the caller that I only have six hours of service left. If instructed to come to work anyway, the carrier is required to have me off the train and tied up when I hit my sixth hour of service that day, which would also be my two hundred seventy-sixth hour for that month. If they failed to do so, again, it would be an HOS violation on their part requiring a report to the FRA along with the requisite fine for them to pay.
A new requirement mandates two days off if you work six days in a row. And a day is now clearly defined as twenty-four hours. So if you work six in a row you must have forty-eight hours off. In a situation where your sixth start in a row takes you out of town to tie up at an away from home terminal, you are allowed to work seven days in a row with that start number seven requiring they bring you to your home terminal to tie up. Then, you get three days, seventy-two hours off. In the case of either two or three days off, that time is calculated from the moment you tie up.
For counting starts, it is per calendar day. You can conceivably have two starts in one calendar day, but they don’t count as two starts. They count as one start even though you worked twice. But you cannot have two starts in one day more than one time. Based on the hours off you are required to have, there is no legal way you can work twice in one day two days in a row. This is a far cry from the old days.
While I cannot state as a matter of fact what other roads are doing (I haven’t bothered to ask anybody I know at the other roads), here at CN they made all of the assignments five days per week. Our collective bargaining agreement allows for this. Now my assignment goes out of town and ties up there. In order to make this work, I now work a turn that ties up at the home terminal on my Monday. My next four days are out one day, back the next. So on my first day of the week which is Saturday, I work something around Chicago Terminal. If need be, they can send us out to Champaign or Freeport, but they would have to transport us back or work us back on a train if time allowed to the home terminal. We have seven assignments like this in Chicago that work out of Glenn Yard and Joliet, known as road relief jobs. We also have a regular turnaround assignment at Markham that goes to Champaign and back everyday.
To prevent running out of people at the end of every month, CN requested with the support and concurrence of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the United Transportation Union, a waiver to adjust the monthly bracket. There are now two brackets; the first through the thirtieth and the fifteenth through the fourteenth. Approximately half of the engineers and trainmen are assigned to each category. In my case, I was assigned to the second category. We weren’t given a choice and for all practical purposes, there is no advantage to be in one bracket as opposed to the other.
Several months ago CN was granted another waiver as well. This allows for assignments that start work at 5am or later and tie up before midnight to work six days per week with only one day off. These apply assignments that have a regular show time. So if you are working a job that regularly goes to work at say, 2pm, you won’t qualify for the six days per week. All of our assignments are scheduled to work ten hours as our basic day is just that, ten hours per day.
Many people I have worked with over the years have complained about the hours we were forced to work and be away from home. When the law was changed and explained, you would not believe the wailing and gnashing of teeth that occurred. One might think you cut these guys right arm off and began to beat them over their heads with it. There are some that have well over-extended themselves and need every last penny they can get. Or they have huge child support payments. In any event, these people need to work all the overtime they can get and are now restricted on just how much they can work.
With the law working the way it does, if you are assigned a five day assignment, you can work one of your days off every other week, you cannot do it each week. The six and two rule takes effect. You have to have two days off if you work six days. So unless you want to lose a work day the following week, you cannot work one of your days off each week. If you work a six day assignment under the waiver CN has and you work a lot of overtime each or most days, you easily run the risk of accumulating your two hundred seventy-six hours before the end of your monthly bracket which requires that you take the rest of your cycle off. You could easily loose several work days as a result. And this has occurred in some instances.
I don’t know how the other roads have set up their computer systems that employees access, but CN has added a category where you can easily see how many accumulated hours you have in your bracket for that month, your hours of limbo time and how many consecutive starts you have accrued. It will also notify you when you are getting dangerously low on total hours accumulated so as not to overextend yourself. If you fail to adhere to the HOS, you are held responsible and can be fined for a violation by the FRA.
From a personal standpoint, I thoroughly enjoy having two days off per week. I actually have a chance to get some things done around here that I didn’t have time for when I was forced to work six days per week. For the first time in years I even have a garden again. There’s nothing like homegrown tomatoes and other veggies. If I want, I can work a day off here or there if it is to my advantage. When it is, I do on occasion. I would never ever do it back in the days when we only had one day off per week. In fact, until just a few months ago, I had not worked a day off since I joined CN predecessor Illinois Central in 1996.
In June of 2009 I attended a conference in Stevens Point, WI. Much of it dealt with the new HOS. There were tons of questions asked with most answered. This is not a knock at the FRA, but this was new for them as well. They too, didn’t have positive answers for all the questions so rather than give us bad information, they deferred answers. As a result, I have become the go to guy here in Chicago and have received numerous questions since this all began. When I am stumped I call the FRA to get rulings. In a couple of instances they didn’t have an answer at the local level and had to check with the big guns in Washington DC for an answer. But they have been very good and answered my in one way or another in pretty much all cases.
Well hopefully this will be slightly clearer than mud and make some sense to you. If not, you are in the same boat as some railroaders and railroad officials.
And so it goes.
Tuch
Hot Times on the High Iron and the HTOTHI initials, ©2005 by JD Santucci.