hours of service News Updates

A bipartisan group of 51 House members sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, criticizing the latest changes to the 34-hour restart provision of the hours-of-service rule for truck drivers and asking for a timeline for the completion of a study of those changes, the lawmakers said Sept. 3.

Members of Congress are asking Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx for a timeline for when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will complete a study on the changes to the hours-of-service restart provision.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it is considering a petition to exempt truck drivers hauling ready-mixed concrete from the new requirement that most drivers take a half-hour rest break before driving more than eight hours.

Federal regulators are considering a limited exemption for two narrow categories of truckers from the new federal hours-of-service provision that requires most truck drivers to take a half-hour rest break during long shifts.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration refused last week to make changes to a regulatory guidance document it published last year allowing some specialty truck drivers at oil and gas exploration sites to extend their workdays.

The chief adversaries in the nearly 17-year battle over federal work rules for commercial drivers agreed that the recent appeals court decision upholding most of the government’s latest regulation closes the book on the overhaul of the so-called hours-of-service rule, which had not changed significantly in 57 years.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration asked the public Monday to weigh in on whether it should grant a permanent exemption to the rest-break requirement in the new hours-of-service rule to truckers hauling livestock.

A federal appeals court upheld most of the government’s hours-of-service rule for commercial drivers, seemingly closing the latest chapter in the long-running debate over the work rules that govern trucking operations.

Truck drivers do not have to take a 30-minute break under federal hours-of-service rules if they meet either of the definitions of a “shorthaul” driver, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced.