Impacted AGC Members Should Comment
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced that it is seeking public comment on revising four specific areas of the current hours-of-service (HOS) regulations. These four main areas under consideration for revision are: (1) expanding the current 100 air-mile “short-haul” exemption from 12 hours on duty to 14 hours on duty to bring consistency to the rules for long-haul truck drivers, (2) extending the current 14-hour on-duty limitation by up to two hours when a truck driver encounters adverse driving conditions, (3) revising the current mandatory 30-minute break for truck drivers after eight hours of continuous driving and (4) 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. AGC will be submitting comments in support of these revisions and requesting additional changes.
Individual members are also encouraged to submit comments by the September 24, 2018 deadline. For further details please review the proposal.
AGC maintains that construction industry truck drivers were never intended to be covered by FMCSA’s hours of service (HOS) restrictions, which were originally aimed at long-haul cross-country drivers. However, many construction drivers are impacted and the problem has become more pronounced because of the recent requirement that drivers must use Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) to record their on-duty times. While a variety of exemptions have been granted to segments of the construction industry – such as asphalt and ready mix delivery and certain trucks used in paving operations – these are limited and cause confusion.
AGC is also working in support of the HOURS Act that would expand the logging exemption for short-haul drivers from 100 to 150 miles, expand the on-duty time to 14 hours and eliminate the 30-minute rest requirement. Certain paperwork requirements would also be eased and the Federal Motor Carrier Administration would be encouraged to move expeditiously to finalize a rule on the use of sleeper berth to meet off duty provisions. AGC is urging members to contact their Congressional representatives through AGC’s Legislative Action Center.
For more information, contact Brian Deery at [email protected] or (703) 837-5319.