WASHINGTON — A top regulator within the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said the agency has begun its review of the truck driver hours-of-service rule and that it intends to complete its review by next July.
“We're going to do everything we can to pull it all together and meet the dates in the settlement agreement,” Larry Minor, FMCSA, associate administrator of the policy and program development division, told Transport Topics Tuesday. “So, we fully expect that we will have a proposal to OMB by the date in that settlement.”
Minor spoke to TT during a meeting of FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee. The committee was meeting to begin outlining suggestions for what FMCSA should review as it reconsiders the hours rule.
Minor said the input of the committee, along with information solicited from a Federal Register notice slated to be published later this month and three public listening sessions planned for January, would all be used to formulate FMCSA’s new hours proposal.
In October, FMCSA reached an agreement with a Public Citizen-led coalition of interest groups to review and revise its hours rule. Under the agreement, the agency must send a new proposal to the White House by July and publish a new final rule in 2011.
By Sean McNally
Senior Reporter
