House seeks to have a say on hours of service change

Updated May 31, 2019
hours-of-service-truck-stop

It appears that at least one part of the hours of service reforms the trucking industry has sought may be in for a bit of a political kerfuffle.

Writing in today’s Commercial Carrier Journal newsletter, our colleague Senior Editor James Jaillet says:

“In what could become a clash between lawmakers in the U.S. House and a Department of Transportation aiming to propose an overhaul to drivers’ hours of service regulations, a working version of the annual Transportation Department funding bill released by the House’s Appropriations Committee last week would bar the DOT from eliminating the 30-minute break requirement of current hours regs.

“The 30-minute break, required within a driver’s first eight hours on-duty, is one of the most unpopular provisions among truckers within current hours regs, alongside the 14-hour rule. The DOT has not said whether it intends to alter the 30-minute break, which took effect in 2013, with its looming proposal to overhaul hours of service regulations. However, DOT specifically requested feedback from drivers on the break in its 2018 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, signaling that the break requirement was at least under evaluation by DOT officials.”

Read Jaillet’s complete story here.