Feds Ease Hours Rules For In-State Truckers

February 23, 2000 10:38 AM, EST

Intrastate carriers got some relief with the latest interpretation of applying federal hours-of-service rules whenever their drivers cross state lines.

The change that shortens the coverage period was outlined in a Feb. 8 memo by Julie A. Cirillo, acting deputy director of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. She advised officials in her agency that intrastate carriers should be held to the federal regulations for seven days after they cross a state line.

For months, industry groups had been urging further modifications in the original interpretation to lessen its effects on carriers. They argued that many states provide exemptions to some haulers, such as drivers in agriculture who face long work hours during harvest periods, and that the ruling would hamper movement of freight.

“I would have liked to have seen the whole problem go away because I don’t think it impacts safety,” said Fletcher Hall, executive director of the Agricultural Transporters Conference, a unit within American Trucking Associations.

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