Court Approves New Hours-of-Service Rules for Commercial Drivers

August 14, 2013 by Susan Garea

On August 2, 2013, the D.C. Circuit rejected most of the American Trucking Association’s private labor law challenges to revised Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) hours-of-service (HOS) safety requirements for commercial truck drivers that were originally set to take effect July 1, 2013.

The new HOS rules now in effect are, as follows:

•  34 Hour Restart Provision: This revised provision limits the use of restart to once every 7 days (168 hours) and requires that each 34-hour rest period include two off-duty periods between 1AM and 5AM. This change reduces the maximum number of hours a driver can spend driving (for example, dropping from 73.9 to 70 hours per week).

• Mandatory Off-Duty Break Provision: This revised provision prohibits drivers from operating a commercial motor vehicle if more than 8 hours have passed since the driver’s last off-duty period of at least 30 minutes.  In other words, drivers are required to take a break of at least 30 minutes within the first 8 hours of having reported for duty.  This rule only applies to long-haul drivers as the court struck down this rule for short-haul drivers.

Public safety organizations and individual drivers separately sued to challenge the FMCSA’s decision not to adopt a 10-hour driving limit.  The court upheld the existing 11-hour limit.

The revised HOS rules also change the definition of on-duty time within private labor law, which was not challenged by the lawsuits.  On-duty time does not include time spent resting in a parked vehicle, time spent resting in a sleeper berth, or up to 2 hours riding in the passenger seat of a property-carrying vehicle immediately before or after a period of at least 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth.

The labor law attorneys at Beeson, Tayer and Bodine have successfully handled several high profile labor law cases in the private and public sectors. If you are having labor law issues with your employer or feel your labor law rights have been violated, please visit www.beesontayer.com to schedule a no-cost consultation today.

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