The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a regulatory proposal that would revise the Hours of Service (HOS) requirements for commercial truck drivers, according to ANLA.
The proposal would require commercial truck drivers to complete all driving within a 14-hour workday, and to complete all on-duty work-related activities within 13 hours to allow for at least a one-hour break. It also leaves open for comment whether drivers should be limited to 10 or 11 hours of daily driving time. Eleven hours is the current standard and the FMCSA said it favors a 10-hour limit, but left the question open-ended in the proposal.
Under the proposed HOS rule, there is an option of extending a driver's daily shift to 16 hours twice a week to accommodate for issues such as loading and unloading at terminals or ports, and allowing drivers to count some time spent parked in their trucks toward off-duty hours. The new HOS proposal would retain the "34-hour restart" provision allowing drivers to restart the clock on their weekly 60 or 70 hours by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off-duty.
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