FMCSA Lifts HOS Rest Rule For Drivers Hauling Animals

This story appears in the July 15 print edition of Transport Topics.

Federal regulators last week waived the rest-break provision of the new hours-of-service rule for truck drivers carrying live animals and also plan to change their guidance on what counts as “off-duty time.”

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it waived the rest break because the above-average temperatures forecast for this summer warrant a temporary reprieve of the rule.

A petition from agricultural interest groups prompted FMCSA to grant the 90-day waiver July 11, citing the harm heat and humidity could cause to animals when a vehicle containing them isn’t moving.

Representatives of other trucking sectors also have asked FMCSA to exempt them from the rest-break requirement.

“During the summer months, exposure to heat is one of the greatest concerns in maintaining the animals’ well-being,” FMCSA said in a Federal Register notice announcing the waiver. Pigs are particularly prone to overheating, and industry standards dictate that drivers carrying pigs should avoid stopping, FMCSA said.

FMCSA’s analysis found that about 116,000 agriculture drivers would be able to use the waiver, and exempting them from the rest-break requirement would not decrease safety.

Chelsea Good, vice president of government affairs at the Livestock Marketing Association, said her group’s concern centered on the welfare of the animals.

“Livestock trailers are vented to allow air to move freely through so that animals can be kept both cool and fresh with that air,” Good said. “When a trailer has to stop, and it’s extremely hot, that becomes an animal-welfare concern from our standpoint.”

The Livestock Marketing Association and representatives of 12 other groups met with FMCSA in May to discuss the issue and submitted a petition in June.

Jon Samson, executive director of the Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference of American Trucking Associations, participated in the meeting.

“The issue with live animals and the break hadn’t really come to our attention until that time,” he said. “So we met with them and explained the effects it could have on live animals if the trailer’s sitting idle and there’s no actual air flow going through the trailer.”

Others attending the meeting included the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Milk Producers Federation and U.S. Poultry and Egg Association.

In their June 19 petition, the agricultural groups asked for a permanent exemption from the rest break as well as the temporary waiver.

Under FMCSA rules, the agency can grant a temporary waiver immediately, but must publish a proposal and gather comments in order to make it permanent.

“The public interest clearly favors granting a waiver and exemption for livestock transporters from the 30-minute rest-break regulation,” the groups wrote.

FMCSA did not say whether it would consider a permanent exemption.

In general, the new rule requires that drivers take a 30-minute nonworking break before driving more than eight hours continuously. The rule also restricts how drivers can use the 34-hour restart to reset their weekly driving limits, saying they can only use it once every seven days, and they must include two periods from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. in the restart.

FMCSA has allowed some exemptions from the rest-break provision, and various sectors have asked for similar reprieves.

When the agency finalized the hours-of-service changes in December 2011, it partially exempted truckers hauling explosives from the rest-break requirement, saying those drivers still must take a break from driving, but they could do other work during that time.

In May, FMCSA added truck drivers contracted by the Department of Energy to carry security-sensitive radioactive materials, saying they can be treated similarly to explosives haulers for the rest break.

The agency has also received petitions from the National Armored Car Association and the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association for exemptions from the rest-break provision for their drivers.

The U.S. Army asked for an exemption from the requirement for its contracted truck drivers who are required to continuously monitor their cargo.

FMCSA has not ruled on any of the other petitions.

David Osiecki, senior vice president of regulatory affairs at ATA, said the exemption petitions show that a one-size-fits-all requirement doesn’t fit.

“Trucking is so diverse and specialized that it’s very difficult to have a one-size-fits-all applicability,” he said.

ATA sued FMCSA in 2012 to stop the new rule, telling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the rule relied on overstated estimates for the role truck-driver fatigue plays in crashes.

The court has not ruled on the challenge.

Separately, FMCSA said it would change its 16-year-old regulatory guidance on “off-duty time” for hours of service. The rest break must be off-duty, and truck drivers must also record meal breaks and other routine stops as off-duty.

Previous guidance from 1997 stated that a driver must be given “written instructions” from the employer about when to take the off-duty time. It also stated that the time must be sufficient to reduce the driver’s fatigue.

The old guidance “had the effect of discouraging drivers from taking breaks during the workday,” FMCSA said.

The changes are due to take effect July 12, after Transport Topics went to press.