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AED Alert: FMCSA Looks to Revise Hours-of-Service Rules, Equipment Dealer Input Needed

AED has been actively working with Congress, the administration and other industry organizations to provide relief for construction equipment dealers from the federal hours-of-service (HOS) rules, particularly the challenges faced by your service technicians.

The association is pleased to announce that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking industry input about possible reforms to the HOS regulations, including:

• Expanding the current 100 air-mile “short-haul” exemption from 12 hours on-duty to 14 hours on-duty, in order to be consistent with the rules for long-haul truck drivers;
• Extending the current 14-hour on-duty limitation by up to two hours when a truck driver encounters adverse driving conditions;
• Revising the current mandatory 30-minute break for truck drivers after 8 hours of continuous driving; and
• Reinstating the option for splitting up the required 10 hour off-duty rest break for drivers operating trucks that are equipped with a sleeper-berth compartment.

Regarding the “short-haul” exemption (the issue AED tends to receive the most feedback about from equipment dealers), the FMCSA (and AED as we prepare comments) would like detailed information about:

• How specifically would a 14 hour period change your driver or carrier operations as compared to 12 hours?
• What would the incremental change be for your operations/business if the exemption was changed to 14 hours? For example, would your operations expand or would your drivers/carriers move from non-exempt status to exempt status?
• What would be the economic impacts of that incremental change?

AED is planning to submit comments to the proposal and it is imperative that you provide feedback to us on the above issues. Please email AED’s Vice President of Government Affairs Daniel B. Fisher by September 10, 2018 with your thoughts, data, anecdotes and other pertinent information supporting the reforms proposed by FMCSA, as well as any other ideas on providing relief from the HOS regulations for your company.

Additionally, AED strongly encourages individual companies to submit comments directly to FMCSA. Comments are due to the FMCSA by September 24, 2018.

The recent ANPRM is available here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/08/23/2018-18379/hours-of-service-of-drivers