FMCSA’s Website Updates HOS Enforcement Guidance
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration updated its website Dec. 17 to reflect the recent suspension of parts of its hours of service rule, a change that took effect when President Obama signed a $1 trillion bill into law Dec. 16.
On its hours of service page, the agency noted that it has suspended the “requirements regarding the restart of a driver’s 60- or 70-hour limit that drivers were required to comply with” since July 1, 2013.
The notice, which also will appear in the Federal Register, said: “The restart provisions have no force or effect from the date of enactment” of the fiscal 2015 funding bill.
Motor carriers, commercial drivers and state motor carrier safety-assistance program recipients and law enforcement personnel with questions about the immediate enforcement changes are asked to contact FMCSA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance.
FMCSA’s requirement that drivers take off two consecutive periods of 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. during a 34-hour restart is suspended through Sept. 30, when the funding law is set to expire. The law also requires FMCSA to provide Congress a report about the restart rule’s health claims.
Truckers still are required to account for a 30-minute break during their shifts and adhere to pre-July 2013 hours of service regulations.
Click Here for Questions and Answers about the HOS Restart Rule.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the likely chairwoman of the transportation funding subcommittee when the next Congress convenes in January, led the effort to include the hours-of-service provision in the funding law. She found support from a bipartisan group of senators and key GOP transportation leaders in the House. They argued the new restart rules pushed truckers to drive during congested daytime hours, increasing the risk of accidents.
American Trucking Associations strongly backed Collins’ efforts. The federation’s chairman, Duane Long, who also is chairman of Longistics, in Raleigh, North Carolina, said, “Fleets from around the country, including mine, tried to tell FMCSA that the previous rules were working just fine and that these new restart provisions were going to cause unintended problems.”
