NEW FMCSA Rules coming

FMCSA Set To Release New Regulations By October 28
Lyndon Finney

WASHINGTON ' It was mid-morning two days before Christmas Day 2010 when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released its new proposed Hours of Service rule that, if adopted as preferred by the trucking regulatory agency, would radically change the face of trucking operations.


The announcement set off a firestorm of controversy groups and the Teamsters praising the proposal and trucking stakeholders criticizing it.

The American Trucking Associations went so far as to say that the Department of Transportation had in essence "dropped three big chunks of coal under trucking's Christmas tree," a reference to the three most controversial aspects of the new rule.

Now almost 10 months later, the FMCSA is scheduled to release waiting to see if the agency has a "trick" or a "treat" to drop in trucking's Halloween bucket.

A "treat" would mean that the agency has decided to retain the rules pretty much as they now read.

A "trick" would mean that the agency has adopted all or most of the three most controversial sections of the proposed rule:

The FMCSA's stated preference to reduce the number of daily driving hours from 11 to 10

Reducing the availability of the 34-hour restart provision to one day within a seven-day period and requiring that the restart include two midnight-to-6 a.m. periods, and

A requirement that truckers take at least a 30-minute rest break spent the entire seven hours behind the wheel on duty driving. The proposed rule would limit a driver to 13 hours of actual duty time during what would now be called the "driving window." The proposed rule would allow drivers to extend the driving window from 14 to 16 hours twice within a seven-day period.

while no one in the industry has a clue how the final rule night look, for certain: The new rule will be challenged in court and perhaps in Congress.

The ATA has been the most active and vocal opponent of the proposed rule, The Trucker: ROB NELSON No one in the trucking industry knows what to expect when the new Hours of Service rule comes out this month, but everyone knows that it will not be to the liking of two groups ' one in favor of leaving the rule as is, the other calling for massive changes.

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