MANILA, Philippines - A lawmaker has proposed to limit the working hours of public utility drivers in an effort to lessen road accidents.
ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Samuel Pagdilao Jr. authored House Bill 5271 "An Act providing daily driving limits for trucks, buses and other public utility vehicles."
Visit our Bill Tracker to view the proposed measure.
Under the bill, the driving limit for each day or within a 24-hour period should be nine hours. Daily driving hours may be extended to 10 hours not more than twice a week.
The proposed measure covers trucks, buses and other motor vehicles classifies as public utility vehicles.
“In other countries, daily driving hours are specifically limited as a safety measure against fatigue-related accident. In the United States, the US Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration mandates a maximum daily driving limit of 10 to 11 hours. In Europe, drivers observe a daily driving limit of 9 to 10 hours only,” Pagdilao said.
Pagdilao noted that driver fatigue is one of the leading causes of potentially fatal road accidents in the country.
To make his point, Pagdilao cited the case of a bus driver who allegedly fell asleep and wrecked a parked police car along EDSA in Quezon City.
“The bus driver claims that he was extremely tired and exhausted for driving 24 hours when the accident occurred, injuring four policemen on duty,” Pagdilao said.
The bill provides that drivers shall have a mandatory uninterrupted break of at least 30 minutes after driving continuously for four and a half hours. The break would not be included in the computation of the daily driving limit.
Drivers will have to record their duty status, which includes the following: date, name of driver, motor vehicle license plate, name of operator/owner/company, 24-hour period starting time, total kilometers driving today, total hours driving and signature of driver.
Those who will fail to observe the provisions of the "Daily Driving Limit Act of 2014" will be imprisoned from one to six months and/or will pay a fine of P100,000.
“The same shall be imposed upon the operator or owner of a motor vehicle who fails to preserve a record of such duty status for inspection,” Pagdilao added.