MILWAUKEE – Driven by new government regulations on drivers’ hours of work, trucking companies are pressing to levy special charges on customers for such things as delays in loading or unloading trailers.

The so-called accessorial charges, which often were not assessed before, are one way carriers are seeking to make up for lost driver productivity as the new work rules take effect.

Schneider National Inc., the Green Bay-based firm that is among the country’s largest trucking companies, is imposing the charges. So is Roehl Transport Inc., a 1,550-driver carrier based in Marshfield, Wis.

Schneider, for example, allows companies that receive its freight one hour to unload, then charges $60 an hour for any additional time. Roehl’s charges, after the allowed free time of one or two hours, depending on the circumstances, generally run $60 to $80 an hour – in line with standards across the industry, executive vice president Bob Rader said.

“The rules changes just lead you there,” Bill Matheson, Schneider vice president and general manager of truckload services, said of the charges.

Schneider, meanwhile, also has increased its shipping rates by 4 percent to 7 percent for a variety of reasons, including the new rules.

The regulations, which took effect this month, are the first major change since 1939 in rules governing truck drivers’ hours. Intended to improve highway safety by combating driver fatigue, they were implemented after years of discussions, hearings and analysis.

Under the old rules, Matheson said, time spent waiting at a loading dock didn’t necessarily count against a driver’s allowed time behind the wheel. Now, he said, time waiting at the loading dock is considered on-duty and cuts into the number of hours a trucker may drive before having to stop and rest.

“Essentially, the old rules would allow you to bury those hours,” Matheson said. “It wouldn’t have the same economic impact (as now) because you could still get the hours on the truck that day.”

Rader said Roehl expects productivity to drop 4 percent to 7 percent because of the new hours rules. Schneider predicts a loss of 2 percent to 19 percent.

Both firms are raising driver pay, in part because drivers, who typically get paid by the mile, won’t be able to put on as many miles under the new regulations. Both companies also are looking to hire more drivers. Roehl wants to add 150 this year, Rader said. Schneider, which has 15,500 company drivers and owner operators, expects to grow its ranks by 750 in 2004.

Despite general unemployment remaining high, drivers have gotten harder to come by, Matheson said. That, he said, is because recruitment of drivers for the truckload sector, in which Schneider operates, tends to be a reverse image of construction-industry employment, which has been strong.

Compared with a year ago, Schneider has been spending about 12 percent more on advertising for drivers but getting fewer for its efforts, Matheson said.

Donald Broughton, an analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., St. Louis, agreed that accessorial charges are increasing and being more vigilantly enforced across the trucking industry.

With the change, he said, the more astute shippers are working harder to get trucks loaded and unloaded quickly. That, in turn, could end up benefiting drivers and make them more productive, Broughton said.

He said the new charges would be subject to negotiation, but that trucking companies currently held the upper hand because demand has been outstripping capacity, thanks to a recovering economy and a downturn in truck production the last few years.