Trucks Hauling Water, Sand in Oilfield Operations Subject to HOS Rules, DOT Says

Truck drivers hauling water and sand to U.S. oil and natural gas shale wells cannot extend their daily driving hours by using an exemption targeted for special oilfield service equipment, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing the Department of Transportation.

Time spent waiting while water and sand are unloaded at well sites counts toward the maximum 14 hours a day drivers can work, DOT said in a rule clarification published in Tuesday’s Federal Register.

Truckers who work for oilfield and natural gas companies have higher rates of accidents and fatalities than the trucking industry due to HOS exemptions, the New York Times reported last month in a front-page story.

DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is targeting a boom in natural-gas drilling by hydraulic fracturing, a process that may require hauling as many as 1,000 truckloads of water and sand for every well, Bloomberg reported.

HOS service exemptions were written into law for more than a dozen industries, including oil-field service equipment, before the final rule was issued, Bloomberg said.

Some drivers may be using an exemption for equipment such as pumps or gas separators that let operators subtract from the limit the time waiting for gear to be unloaded, Boyd Stephenson, American Trucking Associations’ director of hazardous materials, told Bloomberg.

Click here for the Federal Register notice (text version) or click here for a PDF version.