FMCSA Issues New HOS Rule

Frantic lobbying to get legislators to include new HOS rules in the Highway Funding Act have failed. That made it necessary for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to issue new regulations to supersede those that went into effect last January and were then challenged in court. The new rules go into effect on October 1.

Drivers then won’t work much differently from the way they do now. The new rule does not change the existing regulation by much. It keeps limits on driving, work and rest hours. Drivers may spend 11 hours behind the wheel in a 14-hour work day but then must rest for 10 hours.

Drivers may use sleeper-berths to rest twice during a 24 hour period. One of those rests must be eight consecutive hours. FMCSA will no longer permit the use of shorter rest periods that were allowed under the previous rules. CMV drivers using the sleeper berth provision must take at least 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth. They must also take two consecutive hours either in the sleeper berth, off duty, or any combination of the two.

Short-haul drivers must follow the HOS rules but are not required to keep a log book. Two days a week, they may work 16 hours instead of 14. Short-haul is defined as drivers who do not need a commercial driver's license and who operate within a 150-mile radius from their normal reporting location.

American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves referred to the HOS rules under which the industry has been working for nearly a year and said, “Not only are the new rules working, they are superior to the old industry standard in terms of overall safety. They have been effective in improving safety on the nation’s highways and providing for the health of drivers, while also providing for the productive transport of the country’s cargo by the trucking industry.

He added, “According to a study conducted by the American Transportation Research Institute, an ATA affiliate, motor carriers in 2004 posted lower recordable accident rates and lower injury rates per million miles driven. The data, which represent more than 100,000 drivers operating more than 10.5 billion miles, showed recordable accidents per million miles fell to 0.68 in 2004 from 0.71 a year earlier. The total injury rate, meanwhile, declined to 0.94 injuries per million miles from 1.07 injuries per million miles in 2003.”

The new rule still has the 34-hour “restart” provision. This allows drivers to refresh their weekly work periods by taking 34 consecutive hours off duty. Drivers are allowed to work 60 hours in a seven-day period or 70 hours in an eight-day period.

FMCSA’s new rule takes 387 pages to explain. The text this time is focused much more on the impace of the regulations on the health of drivers. In July 2004, a federal court threw out the rules for failing to consider driver health.

The Agency has indicated that it will allow a transitional period of relaxed enforcement, as it did when the HOS Rule first went into effect. Starting January 1, 2006, the regulation will be enforced in earnest.

To see the full FMCSA report, go to http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov

Reprinted from March 2005 newsletter
National Association of Small Trucking Owners