TRUCKLOAD CARRIERS ASSOCIATION

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Hours of Service

Recent Activity

On Thursday, March 15, 2012, TCA filed a motion to intervene with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the litigation the American Trucking Associations (ATA) filed February 14, 2012, challenging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) new hours-of-service (HOS) rule. If the motion is granted, TCA would become a separate party in the litigation and as such would be given additional rights and responsibilities in the suit.

Also on March, 15, 2012, ATA filed a statement of issues with the Court identifying the four “arbitrary and capricious” provisions in the HOS rule that will be challenged. Those provisions include: the 34-hour restart provision that requires two consecutive rest periods between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.; a requirement that the restart be limited to one use per week; the specification that a mandatory 30-minute break from driving also exclude all other on-duty activity; and narrowing, without prior notice, certain exceptions to driver-time regulations for local delivery drivers.

Background

In December 2011, FMCSA released its long-anticipated final rule on hours of service. A summary of the rule is as follows:

The final rule retains the current 11-hour daily driving limit. FMCSA will continue to conduct data analysis and research to further examine any risks associated with the 11 hours of driving time.
FMCSA's new HOS final rule reduces by 12 hours the maximum number of hours a truck driver can work within a week. Under the old rule, truck drivers could work on average up to 82 hours within a seven-day period. The new HOS final rule limits a driver's work week to 70 hours.
Truck drivers cannot drive after working eight hours without first taking a break of at least 30 minutes. Drivers can take the 30-minute break whenever they need rest during the eight-hour window.
The rule requires truck drivers who maximize their weekly work hours to take at least two nights' rest when their 24-hour body clock demands sleep the most—from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. This rest requirement is part of the rule's "34-hour restart" provision that allows drivers to restart the clock on their work week by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off-duty. The final rule allows drivers to use the restart provision only once during a seven-day period.
Companies and drivers that commit egregious violations of the rule could face the maximum penalties for each offense. Trucking companies that allow drivers to exceed the 11-hour driving limit by three or more hours could be fined $11,000 per offense, and drivers could face civil penalties of up to $2,750 for each offense.
Commercial truck drivers and companies must comply with the HOS final rule by July 1, 2013.

The FMCSA's HOS final rule news release is available here.

FMCSA published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) governing driver HOS in December 2010. Under the proposal, drivers would be limited to driving either 10 or 11 hours within a given driving window. The standard driving window would be 14 hours, but drivers would be allowed to extend the window to 16 hours twice a week to accommodate additional rest or unanticipated driving conditions. Drivers would additionally be limited to 13 hours of on-duty time within either the 14- or 16-hour driving window. Drivers would be allowed to drive only if seven or fewer hours had passed since their last off-duty period of at least 30 minutes. The 34-hour restart would be retained but must include two periods between midnight and 6 a.m. and could be used only once every seven days (168 hours).

FMCSA also proposed amending the definition of on-duty to allow team drivers to log as off-duty up to two hours spent in the passenger seat immediately before or after eight consecutive hours spent in the sleeper-berth. Additionally, time spent resting in a parked commercial motor vehicle could be logged as off-duty. The requirement for drivers to obtain 10 consecutive hours of off-duty time and the sleeper berth provision were unchanged by the proposal.

The HOS rule under which the industry currently operates was originally issued in 2005. It was reissued as an interim final rule in 2007 and as a final rule in 2008 following legal challenges. FMCSA again faced legal challenges to the 2008 rule and agreed to a settlement that a new final rule governing HOS would be issued by July 26, 2011. However, the agency missed its July deadline and did not issue the new final rule until December 22, 2011.