The eight changes FMCSA hopes to make to hours-of-service rules
December 28th, 2010 by Kurt Niland
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has proposed eight changes to Hours-of-Service (HOS) rules, which govern work shifts, rest periods, and driving hours for commercial truck and bus drivers. The current rules have gone far in driving down the number of fatigue-related truck crashes and fatalities, but the FMCSA says there is much room for improvement, even though large-truck crashes and fatalities are at their lowest levels since record keeping began in 1975.
Since the current rules were enacted, large truck fatalities have dropped 33 percent, from 5,036 in 2003 to 3,380 in 2009. However, FMCSA officials say that new measures can drive these numbers down even further without disrupting or encumbering commercial activity.
The following eight changes, compiled by the trucking industry advocate Safe Driver Hours, will be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, December 29 and will be open for comment for 60 days. The FMCSA is expected to publish a final rule by July 26, 2011, with an effective date to follow weeks or months later.
1. Maximum driving hours: FMCSA is considering whether to retain the current 11-hour driving time limit or reduce maximum driving time to 10 hours – the same rate that was in place between 1939 and 1962.
2. 14-hour day or “driving window”: FMCSA proposes to retain the current 14-hour window, but allow drivers to extend the window to 16 hours (subject to rest break requirements discussed below) twice in any seven calendar days. Unlike the current 16-hour exemption, use of this provision would not be limited to drivers who return to their normal work reporting locations daily. The current 16-hour exemption would be removed.
3. 13-hour on-duty time limit: Drivers are to be limited to 13 hours of on-duty time within the 14- or 16-hour window. Therefore, drivers exercising the option to use the 16-hour window will be required to take a 3-hour rest break. Drivers must also be released from duty after the 14th (or 16th) hour.
4. Rest breaks: Drivers will be required to take a rest break of at least 30 minutes within 7 hours of first coming on-duty (after being off-duty or returning from a period in the sleeper berth). Also, since drivers would be limited to 13 hours of on-duty time in a driving window (either 14 or 16 hours), a second break (or breaks) may be needed, depending on the duration of the first break.
5. Restart: Though FMCSA proposes to maintain a minimum 34-hour restart provision, it also proposes additional restrictions, which industry advocates assert will make the use of the minimum period impossible for most drivers.
a. First, the restart period would need to include two nighttime periods (midnight to
6 a.m.). To meet this requirement, most drivers will need to extend their restarts to 48 hours or longer.
b. Drivers would only be permitted to use the restart provision once in any seven calendar days (not a new seven day period beginning with a restart, as the current rule allows).
6. Off-duty in a parked CMV or in passenger seat: FMCSA proposes to allow drivers to record time spent in a parked CMV as off-duty time. Also, team drivers would be permitted to record up to 2 hours of time spent in the passenger seat of a CMV in operation as off-duty time, if it is just before or after an 8-hour sleeper berth period.
7. Oilfield Exemption: Under the proposed rule, waiting time at an oil well or natural gas site would not count toward calculation of the 14- (or 16-) hour window.
8. Egregious Violations: FMCSA proposes that a driver who exceeds, and/or a motor carrier that allows a driver to exceed, the driving time limit by 3 hours or more be considered to have committed an egregious violation and be subject to the maximum civil penalties of $2,700 for drivers and $11,000 for motor carriers for each offense.