Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC)
Task Statement 19-1: Hours of Service for Drivers of CMVs

I. Task Title

Provide feedback to the Agency regarding FMCSA’s proposed amendments to its hours-of-service (HOS) requirements to provide greater flexibility for drivers subject to the HOS rules without adversely affecting safety.

II. Background

The implementation of the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) rule (80 FR 78292, Dec. 16, 2015) and the ELD's ability to increase compliance with HOS regulations for drivers of CMVs prompted numerous requests from Congress and from CMV operators for FMCSA to consider revising certain HOS provisions. FMCSA has received petitions from multiple stakeholders requesting relief from the HOS rules, including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and TruckerNation.org (TruckerNation). In response, FMCSA published the August 23, 2018, ANPRM, and held five public listening sessions. Today's NPRM addresses the areas of concern discussed in the petitions, listening sessions, and in the ANPRM.

III. Task

The Agency requests that the MCSAC provide comments on FMCSA’s proposed amendments to its hours-of-service (HOS) requirements to provide greater flexibility for drivers subject to the HOS rules without adversely affecting safety. This would be accomplished by altering the short-haul exception to the record of duty status (RODS) requirement available to certain commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers, modifying the adverse driving conditions exception, increasing flexibility for the 30-minute break rule by requiring a break after 8 hours of driving time (instead of on-duty time) and allowing on-duty/not driving periods as qualifying breaks from driving, modifying the sleeper berth exception to allow a driver to spend a minimum of 7 hours in the berth combined with a minimum 2-hour off-duty period, provided the combined periods total 10 hours (rather than the current 8/2 split), and allowing one off-duty break that would pause a truck driver's 14-hour driving window.

IV. Estimated Time to Complete Task

Given that the comment period for the NPRM closes on October 21, 2019, the MCSAC should deliberate on this task at the fall 2019 meeting. The MCSAC should submit a letter report to the Administrator following the fall meeting.

V.  FMCSA Technical Representatives

• Larry Minor, Associate Administrator for Policy, (202) 366-2551
• La Tonya Mimms, Chief, Driver and Carrier Operations Division, (202) 366-9220