The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has announced that it will hold three public listening sessions as part of its reopening of the agency’s Hours of Service (HOS) Rules. This third reopening in a decade has resulted from a settlement by the Obama administration with Public Citizen and others of a judicial challenge to the HOS rules adopted by the agency in 2008.   On October 26, 2009, the administration agreed that the 2008 Final Rule on drivers' hours of service would not take effect pending the publication of a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).  The settlement agreement states that FMCSA will submit the draft NPRM to the Office of Management and Budget by July 2010 and that the agency will publish a Final Rule by July 2011.  The current HOS rules, adopted in 2005, will remain in effect during the rulemaking proceedings.

 

The dates and locations for the listening sessions are January 29, 2010 in Arlington, Va; January 22, 2010 at a conference facility near Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport; and January 25, 2010 in El Segundo, California. FMCSA has indicated that the listening sessions will be open to the public and that each speaker's remarks will be limited to 10 minutes. Interested parties may also submit comments to the agency separately from the listening sessions.

 

FMCSA has indicated that it is looking for comments on five broad issues.  The agency has also indicated that these issues (and the sub-issues they include) do not necessarily reflect what will appear in the NPRM). The issues and sub-issues listed by FMCSA are as follows.

 

A. Rest and On-Duty Time

 

1. Would mandatory short rest periods during the work day improve driver alertness in the operation of a CMV?  How long should these rest periods be?  At what point in the duty cycle or drive-time would short rest periods provide the greatest benefit?  What are the unintended consequences if these short rest periods are mandatory?  Should the on-duty period be extended to allow for mandatory rest periods?

 

2 If rest or other breaks from driving improve alertness, could a driver who chooses to take specified minimum breaks be given scheduling flexibility — the ability to borrow an hour from another driving day once a week, for example — if that flexibility would not increase safety risks or adversely impact driver health?

 

3. How many hours per day and per week would be safe and healthy for a truck driver to work?

 

4. Would an HOS rule that allows drivers to drive an hour less when driving overnight improve driver alertness and improve safety?  Are there any adverse consequences that could arise from the implementation of a separate night time HOS regulation?

 

B. Restart to the 60- and 70-Hour Rules

 

1. Is a 34-consecutive-hour off-duty period long enough to provide restorative sleep regardless of the number of hours worked prior to the restart?  Is the answer different for a driver working a night or irregular schedule?

 

2. What would be the impact of mandating two overnight off-duty periods, e.g., from midnight to 6 a.m., as a component of a restart period?  Would such a rule present additional enforcement challenges?

 

3. How is the current restart provision being used by drivers?  Do drivers restart their calculations after 34 consecutive hours or do drivers take longer periods of time for the restart?

 

C. Sleeper Berth Use

 

1. If sleeper-berth time were split into two periods, what is the minimum time in each period necessary to provide restorative sleep?

 

2. Could the 14-hour on-duty limitation be extended by the amount of some additional sleeper-berth time without detrimental effect on highway safety?  What would be the appropriate length of such a limited sleeper-berth rest period?

 

D. Loading and Unloading Time

 

1. What effect has the fixed 14-hour driving "window" had on the time drivers spend waiting to load or unload?  Have shippers and receivers changed their practices to reduce the amount of time drivers spend waiting to load or unload?

 

E. General

 

1. Are there aspects of the current rule that do not increase safety risks or adversely impact driver health and that should be preserved?