Hours of Service of Drivers; Supporting Documents

Summary: The FMCSA intends to clarify that each motor carrier has the duty under the current regulations to: Verify the accuracy of drivers' hours of service (HOS) and records of duty status (RODS), and this obligation extends to the HOS and RODS of independent drivers or owner- operators while driving for the motor carrier; ensure each driver collects and submits to the employing motor carrier all supporting documents with the RODS; and ensure all motor carriers know of the requirement to maintain supporting documents in a method that allows cross reference to the RODS. This notice also proposes a supporting document based self-monitoring system that would be the carrier's primary method for ensuring compliance with the HOS regulations. In recognition of developing technologies, the FMCSA proposes to permit the use of electronic documents as a supplement to, and, in certain circumstances, in lieu of, paper supporting documents. The intended effect of this proposal is to provide clearer and more detailed definitions of ``supporting documents'', ``employee'', ``driver'', and a requirement for each motor carrier to use a self-monitoring system to verify accuracy of HOS and RODS.