WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) issued the following statement on the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) releasing a final rule on hours-of-service:
“The Transportation Department’s final rule on hours-of-service successfully balances safety on the roads with flexibility for those in the driver’s seat. I thank Secretary Chao for her diligence in crafting this guidance.”
According to the Transportation Department, the revised rules include:
- Increased safety and flexibility for the 30-minute break rule by requiring a break after 8 hours of consecutive driving and allowing the break to be satisfied by a driver using on-duty, not driving status, rather than off-duty status.
- Modifications to the sleeper-berth exception to allow drivers to split their required 10 hours off duty into two periods: an 8/2 split, or a 7/3 split—with neither period counting against the driver’s 14?hour driving window.
- Changes to the adverse driving conditions exception by extending by two hours the maximum window during which driving is permitted.
- Updates to the short-haul exception available to certain commercial drivers by lengthening the drivers’ maximum on?duty period from 12 to 14 hours and extending the distance limit within which the driver may operate from 100 air miles to 150 air miles.
Learn more here.
