HOS Changes Announced by FMCSA
“The new hours-of-service changes show that FMCSA is listening to industry and fulfilling its duty to establish data-driven regulations that truly work.”
— TCA President John Lyboldt
Earlier this morning, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced the publication of its long-awaited final rule on changes to the hours-of-service (HOS) regulations.
Watch video message from U.S. Department of Transportation’s Secretary Elaine Chao.
TCA applauds the Agency for taking an active role in receiving input from all stakeholders to craft flexible regulations for the industry while still improving safety, and for also expediting this rule change to provide the maximum benefit.
TCA is very pleased to see that sleeper berth flexibility has been increased to allow for 7/3 splits and that the previously required 30-minute rest break will now only be required after eight consecutive hours of driving, with more options for how the break can be taken. TCA also notes that revisions to the short-haul exemption and the adverse weather conditions rule are present in the Final Rule.
“The new hours-of-service changes show that FMCSA is listening to industry and fulfilling its duty to establish data-driven regulations that truly work,” stated TCA President John Lyboldt. “We especially thank the Agency for moving forward with additional sleeper berth flexibility. While TCA and our members advocate for full flexibility in the sleeper berth for our drivers, FMCSA’s new regulations demonstrate that we are one step closer to achieving that goal.”
TCA is still in the process of reviewing the Final Rule in its entirety. We will provide further updates for our members as we continue to identify the full impacts of the regulatory changes.
Note:
TCA has been in communication with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regarding ambiguities to the new 30-minute break requirements. As a point of clarification, under the newly released Final Rule on hours of service (HOS), drivers will be required to take a 30-minute break after 8 cumulative hours of driving, provided the driver has not already taken a consecutive 30-minute break prior to reaching the 8-hour mark. This break can now be satisfied either by off-duty, sleeper berth, or on-duty not driving time or by a combination of off-duty, sleeper berth, and on-duty not driving time.
If taking a break prior to reaching 8 hours of driving, the driver must record a consecutive 30-minute interruption of driving status in order to satisfy the requirement. The break cannot be broken into to smaller segments, such as two breaks of 15 minutes or three breaks of 10 minutes. For example, while a flatbed driver is required to stop regularly to conduct load securement checks, these routine stops would not count toward the 30-minue break unless the driver records a change of driving status to either off-duty, sleeper berth, and on-duty not driving time or a combination of those for at least 30 consecutive minutes.
To read the direct language surrounding the 30-minute break in the Final Rule, please view pages 169 and 232.