Brothers,

The only way we could accomplish what Brother Ray seeks is to have the law changed again. I’m copying Vice President and National Legislative Representative Tolman for his review and consideration. For what it’s worth, during the RSAC process leading up to FRA’s recent interpretations we attempted to persuade FRA to rule (1) that the extra time off was optional on the part of the employee and (2) that the excess limbo time be counted in full hours (e.g., up to 59 minutes did not trigger rest, and the 1:30 Ray had would have provided 1:00 of extra rest). Unfortunately, we did not succeed in that effort.

Fraternally,
Thomas A. Pontolillo
Assistant to the President and Director of Research
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
Standard Building Mezzanine
1370 Ontario Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44113-1702
Phone: (216) 377-3503
Fax: (216) 694-0255
E-Mail: pontolillo@ble-t.org

Ray:

I understand what you are saying and you are not the only one that is being left at the AFHT for inordinate amounts of time. I doubt that we would have much luck getting any relief on this subject but I will forward your email to Tom Pontolillo who has been the BLET’s point man during all the RSIA coming to life. He can give you a better opinion on this subject than I can.

Pat

Pat,

I am well aware that the new RSIA law was not what we had hoped it would be, and now that we have had a month of real life experience with with it, some genuine problems have made themselse all too apparent. The biggest issue we are seeing locally is the inordinate amount of time we are spending at the away from home terminal. Held away time has gone through the roof and the guys are more worn out now than they were before the new law. This is because we are spending more time at the away from home terminal than we are at home. This whole situation is causing us to turn and burn out of our home terminal because our longest trips are to the away from home terminal.

The ten hours undisturbed is OK, in fact a lot of the guys like it. We all know that the old eight hours off was frequently less than safe. It is the additional rest time required with limbo time when we are at the away from home terminal that is killing us. I will use my last trip as an example. I made it to La Junta in 11 hours 45 mins. Then I died on the hours of service in the van on the way to Trinidad. I finally tied up with 13 hours and 30 mins against me. This gave me an hour and a half of limbo time, which was added to my required ten hours undisturbed rest. I tied up at 0430 this morning so I will not be legally rested for a call until 1800. Obviously I was tired when I got to the motel so I went to bed and slept until about noon. Because I was not available they activated two additional Trinidad crews ahead of mein order to cover service needs. Now I am not due out until 2100 or later tonight. It isn't hard to figure out that this addional time off at the away from home terminal is counter productive. I will almost certainly not be well rested for my return trip by the time I get my call. Without the limbo time added to my required 10 hours undisturbed rest I would have been legally rested for a call for 1630. In this case we are only talking about an hour and a half, but an hour and a half can make a huge difference in the end results. We are dealing with double ended active/ inactive boards and it could mean a difference of several hours.

My question to you is this, is there anyway we can persuade the feds to eliminate adding the limbo time to our required rest at the away from home terminal? I am not talking about at the home terminal, only the away from home terminal.

Ray