Request for comments on FMCSA proposed changes to HOS rule

20 Sep Request for comments on FMCSA proposed changes to HOS rule

The FMCSA has proposed the following changes to the Hours of Service (HOS) rule:

1. Broaden the short-haul exception to make it available to certain commercial drivers by lengthening drivers’ maximum on-duty period from 12 to 14 hours, and extend the distance limit within which the driver may operate from 100 air miles to 150 air miles.
2. Modify the adverse driving conditions exception by extending the maximum window during which driving is permitted by two hours.
3. Increase the safety and flexibility for the 30-minute break rule by tying the break requirement to eight hours of driving time without an interruption for at least 30 minutes and allows the driver to satisfy the break rule using an “on duty,” not “driving” status, rather than an “off duty” status.
4. Modify the sleeper-berth exception to allow drivers to split their required 10 hours off duty into two periods: one period of at least seven consecutive hours in the sleeper berth and the other period of not less than two consecutive hours, either off duty or in the sleeper berth. Neither period would count against the driver’s 14-hour driving window.
5. Allow one off-duty break of at least 30 minutes, but not more than three hours, that would pause a truck driver’s 14-hour driving window, provided the driver takes 10 consecutive hours off-duty at the end of the work shift.

Please contact Randy Stookey (randy@kansasag.org) if any of these changes would be helpful, and if so, how. Also, include any additional changes you would like to see in the HOS rules. Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association will include your responses in its association comment. Please provide comments on or before Friday, October 4, 2019.

In addition, if you would also like to submit your own comment on the rule, comments can be submitted at the regulations.gov website, Here. The full comment period has been extended to October 21, 2019.