The regulations governing truck drivers’ hours of service apparently won’t change – at least not until the next round of litigation or any reconsideration initiated by the Obama administration.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published in the Federal Register on Nov. 19 a final rule adopting the provisions of its Dec. 17, 2007, interim final rule on HOS. The agency issued the December 2007 IFR to hold current regulations in place pending a reconsideration ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Under the final rule, commercial motor vehicle drivers may continue to drive up to 11 hours within a 14-hour, non-extendable window from the start of the workday, following at least 10 consecutive hours off duty. And motor carriers and drivers may continue to restart calculations of the weekly on-duty limits after the driver has at least 34 consecutive hours off duty. The 11-hour and 34-hour rules were at the heart of Public Citizen’s second challenge to the hours rules.

The final regulation is set to take effect Jan. 19, one day before President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

“This rule was designed to continue the downward trend in truck fatalities and maintain motor carrier operational efficiencies,” said FMCSA Administrator John Hill during a telephone press conference Nov. 18. “Our science is meticulous and our analysis exhaustive so that we can deliver definitive results: more alert and efficient drivers, safer roads and even fewer fatalities.” Hill added that the rules “are crafted to match what we know about drivers’ circadian rhythms and the real-world work environment truckers face every day.”

Hill said his agency’s most recent review of the rule did not consider a revision of the split sleeper-berth provisions because that was not part of what the appeals court addressed. There is enormous interest in the topic, he said, as evidenced by many of the approximately 900 public comments submitted on the interim final rule.