FMCSA Issues Final Rule Revising Truck Driver Hours of Service Regulations

One day after the Department of Transportation issued final flight duty and rest requirements for commercial passenger airline pilots, the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on December 22, 2011, released a final rule establishing new hours of service (HOS) regulations for commercial truck drivers. Like the pilot rest rule, the truck driver HOS regulations were revised to combat fatigue-related accidents. The main changes to the HOS requirements are as follows:

• The agency will maintain the current 11-hour daily driving limit unless further study indicates that the benefits of reducing the limit outweigh the costs. The final rule does not include a change to the daily driving limit because the Agency concluded that it could not definitively demonstrate that a 10-hour limit — which it favored in the proposed rule — would have higher net benefits than an 11-hour limit. The rule does, however, reduce from 82 to 70 the weekly maximum number of hours a truck driver is permitted to work, a 15% reduction.
• The reduction in hours is accomplished by limiting a driver’s “34-hour restart” to once every 168 hours (7 days). As established under earlier HOS regulations, drivers are permitted to restart their duty time calculations whenever they take at least 34 consecutive hours off. Limiting this restart to once a week prevents drivers from working more than 70 hours per week.
• The rule mandates that the 34-hour restart period must include at least two periods of time between 1:00 and 5:00 a.m. (measured by the driver’s home terminal time) to increase the driver’s opportunity to sleep.
• The rule also requires that the drivers spend no more than 8 consecutive hours (compared to 7 hours in the proposed rule) on duty without taking a break lasting at least 30 minutes before driving. This break time may include meal breaks, time in the sleeper berth, or any other off-duty period. In response to comments on the proposed rule, the agency makes an exception for commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) carrying certain explosives. These drivers are permitted to count on-duty time spent attending the truck carrying the explosives as part of the mandatory 30-minute break, so long as they do no other work during that time.
• The rule revises the definition of “on-duty time” by excluding from that definition any time spent resting in a parked CMV or up to 2 hours spent resting in the passenger seat of a moving CMV immediately before or after spending at least 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth. This change applies to passenger-carrying vehicle drivers as well.
• The rule defines and establishes penalties for egregious violations of the HOS rule. Specifically, driving or allowing a driver to drive a CMV for 3 or more hours beyond the 11-hour limit can be considered an egregious violation of the rule subject to civil penalties. Employers will face a maximum penalty of up to $11,000 per offence; drivers up to $2,750 per offense. This penalty provision also applies to passenger-carrying vehicle drivers.
• The rule revises HOS provisions applicable to drivers involved with oilfield operations. Specifically, the rule makes certain technical clarifications to the time recording requirements for these drivers. "Waiting time" for certain drivers at oilfields must be shown on logbook or electronic equivalent as off duty and identified by annotations in "remarks" or a separate line added to "grid."

The rule’s changes to “on duty time” as well as to the oilfield provisions take effect 60 days after the rule is published in the Federal Register. All other portions of the rule are scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2013. The Agency noted that, generally, when implementing safety rules, it prefers to set shorter compliance dates. However, in this case, the Agency acknowledged, as many others pointed out, that industry and law enforcement may need extra time to train personnel and to adjust schedules and automated systems. The Agency concludes that the rule will mainly affect drivers who work more than 70 hours a week on a continuing basis, who are mostly a subset of long-haul truckload drivers.

 If you or your trucking company have questions about Hours of Service violations or questions about compliance with these regulations, the attorneys at the law firm of Bostwick & Price, P.C. are available to answer your questions and concerns. www.bostwickprice.com