HOS

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued a final rulemaking regarding clarification to the applicability of emergency exemptions for motor carriers during emergencies.

The federal government is looking into speeding up the process in which Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) are issued. At the same time, the federal government ruled against revisions to the hours-of-service (HOS) requirements, citing that safety groups gave no basis for changes that would have provided more flexibility to drivers.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has set May 4-6, 2021, as the dates for this year’s International Roadcheck, over that 72-hour period, commercial motor vehicle inspectors in jurisdictions throughout Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will conduct inspections on commercial motor vehicles and drivers.

The latest tweaks to the 83-year-old truck driver hours of service regulations went into effect Sept. 29 as the Transportation Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) attempts to build in flexibility to a monolithic regulation covering some 3.5 million long-haul truckers.

FMCSA officials said that the agency is continuing the extension, due to the fact that the national emergency declaration remains in place, adding that a continued exemption is needed to support direct emergency assistance for some supply chains.

House Democrats are requesting what they call a “comprehensive review” of the final HOS rule governing as many as 3.5 million long-haul truck drivers. Those long-haul drivers, mostly in the $340 billion truckload sector, would stand to gain some efficiencies from four major changes in HOS rules recently announced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Those changes are:

FMCSA Acting Administrator Jim Mullen explained that this ruling is the result of listening to all industry stakeholders, including the motor carrier industry, truckers, safety advocates, law enforcement, and state partners.

The Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said yesterday that its national emergency declaration to provide hours-of-service regulatory relief to commercial vehicle drivers transporting emergency relief in response to the nationwide coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has been extended through May 15, 2020 or until the revocation of the Presidentially-declared COVID-19 national emergency.

Following the March 13 national emergency declaration to provide hours-of-service regulatory relief to commercial vehicle drivers transporting emergency relief in response to the nationwide coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued an expanded national emergency declaration yesterday.

On the heels of President Trump late last week issuing a national declaration emergency in response to the frenetic impact of the coronavirus, the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said it has formally issued a national emergency declaration to provide motor carrier hours-of-service (HOS) regulatory relief in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

While the motor carrier hours-of-service (HOS) final rule has ostensibly been on the back burner since the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) geared towards HOS rule changes, with an emphasis on increasing safety through updating existing commercial motor vehicle driver regulations last August, it appears now that the wheels may be turning on the potential next steps for a final rule.

New HOS tweaks top the list of regulatory changes heading into 2020. Carriers say flexibility is key to effective industry regulation covering the niche sectors that make up this dominant, $700 billion industry.

A new look may be coming to motor carrier hours-of-service (HOS) rules, with the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) geared towards HOS changes, with an emphasis on increasing safety through updating existing commercial motor vehicle driver regulations.

The Department of Transportation is quietly moving to make truck drivers’ hours of service rules more flexible.

Motor carriers that have long been pleading for more flexibility in the federal government’s truck driver hours-of-service (HOS) rules may finally be getting their wish…maybe.