FMCSA Finalizes Hours-of-Service Changes to Break, Sleeper Berth and Short-Haul Rules
FMCSA's May 2020 final rule changed four parts of the U.S. hours-of-service rules without adding driving time, with compliance set for September 29, 2020.
In May 2020, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) finalized the biggest change to U.S. truck hours-of-service (HOS) rules in years. The agency announced the final rule on May 14, 2020, describing four changes meant to give drivers more flexibility without adding driving time. The rule was published in the Federal Register on June 1, 2020, with an effective date of September 29, 2020.
How the rule came about
FMCSA opened the topic with an advance notice of proposed rulemaking in 2018 and followed with a proposed rule in August 2019. The agency said the proposal drew roughly 2,800 public comments.
The four changes
30-minute break. Under the existing rule, a property-carrying driver needed a 30-minute off-duty break after 8 hours on duty. The final rule tied the break to driving time instead: a driver needed a break only after 8 hours of driving without a 30-minute interruption. Any non-driving status counted, so on-duty not driving time, off-duty time or sleeper berth time could satisfy it.
Sleeper berth split. Drivers could split the required 10 hours off duty into two periods, as long as one was at least 7 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth and the other was at least 2 hours, in or out of the berth, with the two adding up to at least 10. FMCSA described the practical options as an 8/2 or 7/3 split. Neither qualifying period counted against the 14-hour driving window. Under the old rule, the longer period had to be at least 8 hours in the berth.
Adverse driving conditions. When unexpected adverse conditions such as snow, sleet or fog came up, the existing exception already allowed up to 2 extra hours of driving. The final rule also extended the driving window by up to 2 hours. It changed the definition so the exception could be based on what the driver, not only the dispatcher, knew about conditions after being dispatched.
Short-haul exception. The short-haul exception, which lets qualifying drivers skip logs and ELDs, was widened. The maximum duty period went from 12 to 14 hours, and the distance limit went from 100 to 150 air-miles.
What stayed the same
FMCSA stressed that the rule did not increase maximum driving time. Drivers still could not drive more than 8 hours in a row without a 30-minute break.
The agency also left out one idea from the 2019 proposal: a single off-duty break of up to 3 hours that would have paused the 14-hour clock. FMCSA said it decided not to adopt that change.
Cost and timing
FMCSA estimated the changes would save nearly $274 million a year. The rule set a 120-day lead time after publication, which put the compliance date at September 29, 2020. FMCSA expected one-time costs of about $8.6 million for federal and state governments to train inspectors on the new requirements. Until the compliance date, the existing HOS rules continued to apply.
Archive: this article describes rules and events as of May 2020. Regulations may have changed since, so check the current rule before relying on it.