FMCSA Postpones Public Listening Session on Hours of Service Rules

On Sept. 13, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced that it would be holding a public listening session concerning potential changes to its hours-of-service (HOS) rules. However, due to Hurricane Florence, the session has been postponed (new date to be determined).

FMCSA announced an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) that proposes to make changes to commercial motor vehicle driver hours of service regulations (HOS), some of which are changes that PMAA has sought over the past years.

The proposed changes include:

• A PMAA-New England Fuel Institute (NEFI) request that would expand the current 100 air-mile "short-haul" exemption from 12 hours on-duty to 14 hours on-duty, to be consistent with the rules for long-haul truck drivers.
• Extending the current 14 hour on-duty limitation by up to two hours when a truck driver encounters adverse driving conditions which will help drivers during bad weather events before a HOS waiver is issued.
• Extending the current 14 hour on-duty limitation to allow for up to a three-consecutive hour break (to allow for loading and unloading);
• Revising the prohibition against driving after the 14th hour from the time the driver comes on-duty to prohibit driving after the 14th hour of on-duty time: this would allow drivers to count only the hours of their shift while on-duty towards the 14 hour daily on-duty limit. In other words, drivers could end their shift after the 14th hour if periods of off-duty time occurred within the 14-hour period.
• Revising the current mandatory 30-minute break for truck drivers after eight hours of continuous driving: this will benefit petroleum marketer drivers who drive beyond the 100 air-mile radius exemption from rest breaks to reach a distant terminal.
• Eliminating the 30-minute rest break requirement for drivers: Drivers who stay within 100 air miles of their originating location are exempt from the 30-minute rest break requirement. The requirement would only apply to those drivers who drive beyond 100 miles.

Our national trade association, PMAA, will be submitting comments.