The ANPRM poses no reforms for hours regs. Instead, it is simply a list of questions aimed at gathering input from drivers, owner-operators, carriers and other industry stakeholders.
The agency is set to publish an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the coming days and will accept public comments via the regulations.gov rulemaking portal for 30 days after its publication. Comments can be filed at this link.
FMCSA is also holding a series of public listening sessions in the coming months, including one this Friday in Dallas at the Great American Trucking Show at 3 p.m. Another listening session is scheduled for Sept. 14 in Washington, D.C., at FMCA headquarters. Other listening sessions will be announced, said FMCSA Administrator Ray Martinez, who announced the hours of service data gathering mission on Tuesday.
“It’s time to have an honest conversation about hours of service,” Martinez said. “What we have been doing is listening to stakeholders in our regulated community over the last few months with regard to hours of service and what changes would they propose that would make sense and add flexibility. What we kept hearing was flexibility, flexibility, flexibility. We are a safety agency — that’s our focus. Everything we look at is through the lens of safety. So that is how we are approaching this: If we’re going to look at hours of service changes to add flexibility for the regulated community, as long as safety remains a priority, we’re willing to do that.”
Martinez says there’s “no guarantee” that any further action will be taken on hours of service reforms. He said the agency’s next steps will be predicated based on the feedback it receives from industry stakeholders and the public. “We’re encouraging everyone who has a stake in this to come forward and participate,” he said. “It’s very open. This is an opportunity. Hours of service have not been seriously addressed in 15 years.”
Martinez also said the implementation of the electronic logging device mandate, which is obviously intended to force more strict adherence to hours of service regulations, allows the agency to pivot to look for areas to add flexibility to hours regs.
To view the long list of questions posed by FMCSA about potential hours of service reforms, see its ANPRM at this link.
The agency’s move to begin evaluating hours of service regs was applauded the American Trucking Associations.
ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said his group is “pleased to see that Secretary Chao and Administrator Martinez recognize the need for sensible, data-driven hours-of-service reform,” and that the group will work to “provide FMCSA and DOT with the information they need to make needed, common sense improvements to the hours-of-service rules.”
