The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will hold a public listening session Saturday, Sept. 22 on potential changes to its Hours of Service (HOS) rules for commercial truck drivers. The listening session takes place at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, NV from 10 a.m.-noon PDT.
A session that was to be held last Friday, Sept. 14 in Washington, DC was canceled due to severe weather from Hurricane Florence. Additional listening sessions are scheduled for Friday, Sept. 28 in Joplin, MO and Tuesday, Oct. 2 in Orlando.
FMCSA is seeking public comments on four specific aspects of the HOS rules where it is considering changes, including:
—Expanding the 100-air-mile short-haul HOS exemption;
—Extending the current 14-hour limit for on-duty drive time for up to two hours when drivers encounter adverse driving conditions;
—Revising the current 30-minute rest break required after 8 hours of continuous driving; and
—An option to allow drivers to split up their required 10 hours of sleeper berth time once they reach 14 hours after they've come on duty.
FMCSA also asked for public comments on HOS petitions from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn. and TruckerNation.org.
The agency is encouraging electronic logging device (ELD) vendors to participate and offer their perspectives on potential implementation issues if changes were made to the HOS rules.
The listening session will be webcast for those who can't attend in person. Those interested can present comments, their views, and relevant research on the above topics. All comments will be transcribed and placed in FMCSA's rulemaking docket for potential HOS changes.
Again, the session will be Saturday, Sept. 22 in Reno, NV at the National Automobile Museum at 10 S Lake Street, Reno, NV, 89501. It's scheduled for 10 a.m.-noon PDT, but could end earlier if all participants who wish to express their views and comment have done so.
You can submit questions during the live stream to [email protected].
RSVP for the event and get additional info at eventbrite.com/e/fmcsa-public-listening-session-tickets-50281408045.
