FMCSA Adopts Final Rule on Hours of Service for Drivers

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on November 19, 2008, published its Final Rule on drivers' hours of service (HOS).

FMCSA has adopted as final the provisions of the Agency’s December 17, 2007, interim final rule which allows commercial motor vehicle drivers to continue to drive up to 11 hours within a 14-hour, non-extendable window from the start of the workday, following at least 10 consecutive hours off duty (11-hour rule). The rule also allows motor carriers and drivers to continue to restart calculations of the weekly on- duty limits after the driver has at least 34 consecutive hours off duty (34-hour restart).

The regulation becomes effective on January 19, 2009.

Click here to read the final rule as published in the Federal Register.

FMCSA’s Driver Rules Survive Court Challenge (10/1/07)

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) hours of service rules survived a court challenge by advocacy groups and will remain in effect.

Eight days after the agency issued its interim final rule on December 11, 2007, Public Citizen, three other groups and the Teamsters union resumed their legal battle with FMCSA over provisions that allow 11 hours of daily driving and a 34-hour “restart” period at the end of each weekly work cycle.

Arguments advanced by the opponents of the rules were rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The agency is continuing to assess what hours drivers should be allowed to work. FMCSA has promised it will develop new standards by December to replace the interim final rule that was issued two months ago.

In the December interim rule, FMCSA said additional research as well as reductions in fatalities related to heavy trucks demonstrated that safety has been enhanced by the 11 hours of driving and 34 hours of mandated rest.

Comments about the interim final rule must be received at the agency by February 15.

FMCSA maintained that the interim rule that kept the same standards in effect was justified both by the safety statistics and the potential disruptions for trucking companies and their customers if the rules that existed before 2003 were put back into place.

Opponents told the Court that the interim final rules should be thrown out because FMCSA failed to adequately respond to a July 2007 ruling by the same court that the 11-hour driving limit and the 34-hour restart period must be re-evaluated. The July ruling said the agency failed to do enough research to determine the safety impact of one more hour of daily driving and the creating of the restart period.

Senate Hearing

A Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on December 19 about hours of service regulations showcased the wide variety of positions on the issue.

Committee Chairman Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, questioned the merit of FMCSA’s plan and hinted that Congress might get involved.

FMCSA Administrator John Hill defended the interim final rule, saying at the hearing that the fatality rate, which measures the number of deaths per million vehicle miles, was at its lowest level in three decades. The American Trucking Association (ATA) expressed support for the FMCSA rule, saying it is a balanced approach.

Public Citizen and its allies testified that the rules do not enhance safety and found fault with the statistics offered by FMCSA and ATA.

The latest go-round is the third challenge mounted by Public Citizen and its allies since the hours of service rules were overhauled in 2003. At that time, the FMCSA rewrote regulations that dated to 1935, which allowed 10 hours behind the wheel in each 15-hour period.

Under the old rules, the on-duty cycle could be repeated after eight hours of rest. The old rules limited driving to 60 hours in a seven-day period or 70 hours in eight days.

FMCSA in 2003 issued new standards to permit 11 hours of driving in 14 hours of on-duty time, followed by a 10-hour rest period that was intended to link the drivers’ work cycle to a more normal 24-hour cycle of waking and rest periods. The restart period was added to create additional rest time.

The Circuit Court in Washington ruled in favor of Public Citizen during 2005, a decision that was in response to the adoption of the rule in 2003. FMCSA answered by making a change in the rest cycle for team drivers to require eight hours of rest between shifts instead of a minimum of five hours. Otherwise, FMCSA made no other substantive changes in the second version of the rules. Public Citizen and others challenged those revised rules, resulting in the July 2007 decision.

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Click here to view the FMCSA Interim Final Fule.  (BROKEN LINK)