FMCSA Narrows COVID-19 Emergency Relief to Driving-Time Limits

In September 2021, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) extended its nationwide COVID-19 emergency declaration again, but cut back the relief it offered. The extension and amendment of Emergency Declaration No. 2020-002, signed August 31, 2021, took effect at 12:00 a.m. on September 1 and ran through 11:59 p.m. on November 30, 2021, unless the national emergency ended sooner.

Why FMCSA extended it

The previous extension, dated May 26, 2021, ran through August 31. FMCSA said the national emergency was still in place and pointed to the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant and vaccination rates that were lagging in parts of the country. It said continued relief was needed for some supply chains.

Relief narrowed to driving time

Earlier versions of the declaration had exempted qualifying carriers from Parts 390 through 399 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, with listed exceptions. The September amendment limited relief to one rule: 49 CFR 395.3, the maximum driving time limits for property-carrying vehicles.

That meant carriers using the declaration still had to keep records of duty status and use electronic logging devices under 395.8 and the ELD rules, and keep ELD records for six months. Drug and alcohol rules, the requirement to hold a hazardous materials safety permit where needed, and the other limits carried over from earlier versions, such as the fatigue and phone-use rules and the 24-hour crash reporting requirement, still applied.

Categories of qualifying loads

The relief covered direct assistance involving these loads:

1. livestock and livestock feed;
2. medical supplies and equipment for testing, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19;
3. vaccines and related supplies for giving them;
4. supplies for community safety, sanitation and preventing spread, such as masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, soap and disinfectants;
5. food, paper products and other groceries for emergency restocking of distribution centers or stores;
6. gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and ethyl alcohol (new);
7. supplies to help people affected by the consequences of the pandemic, such as building materials for people displaced by it (new).

FMCSA stressed that a load had to be both one of these commodities and incident to the immediate restoration of essential supplies. Routine deliveries and mixed loads with only a token amount of qualifying cargo did not count.

A new reporting duty

The amendment added a reporting requirement. Carriers operating under the declaration had to report their use of it within five days after the end of each month, through the FMCSA portal.

The declaration was signed by Meera Joshi, FMCSA Deputy Administrator.

Archive: this article describes rules and events as of September 2021. Regulations may have changed since, so check the current rule before relying on it.