OOIDA Petitions FMCSA for Rest-Period HOS Changes

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he Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association filed a petition Monday asking the government to reconsider its recently revised hours-of-service rules for truckers over two of the rule’s provisions for driver rest periods.

OOIDA said in a statement that despite the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s statements that the rule had not been significantly changed, OOIDA “identified specific changes that will have a significant impact on truckers and their operations.”

“We are filing for two common-sense changes to the [HOS] rule,” said OOIDA’s President Jim Johnston.

The group wants truckers to be able to take a two-hour break that would effectively “stop the clock” on their work hours, to attend to things like eating and showering that should not, the group says, count against drivers’ work hours.

The other change, for split-sleeper berths for team drivers, would allow each to take a minimum of eight hours off in a sleeper berth.

OOIDA said that change is “impractical” and that it is asking that FMCSA retain the current sleeper-berth provision, for team drivers, that is based on a five-hours on and five-hours off schedule.

With teams, “often the period of a driver’s rest is a combination of the length of the other (team) driver’s driving period plus that other driver’s breaks to take care of business,” Johnston said.