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Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Then search for FMCSA-2018-0248, look for ANRPM: Hours of Service of Drivers. Choose the comment button ” Hours Of Service” give your comments in the box provided, name and other required information. There is optional information if you want you can fill it up. Review your comments and then submit.
- Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
- Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
- Fax: 202-493-2251.
If you want FMCSA to send you confirmation that they receive your comments, Please send a self-stamped postcard with your mail. Please make sure to put this Docket Number FMCSA-2018-0248.
These are 4 topics you need to comment:
A. Short-Haul Operations
Under 49 CFR 395.1(e)(1)(ii)(A), drivers do not have to prepare RODS or use an ELD if they meet certain conditions, including a return to their work reporting location and release from work within 12 consecutive hours. Drivers operating under this provision, therefore, have a 12-hour window in which to drive up to 11 total hours. Other truck (though not bus) drivers have a 14-hour window in which to drive up to 11 total hours. [49 CFR 395.3(a)(2)-(3)].
B. Adverse Driving Conditions
The current rule in § 395.1(b)(1) allows 2 additional hours of driving time under adverse conditions, which are defined in § 395.2 as “snow, sleet, fog, other adverse weather conditions, a highway covered with snow or ice, or unusual road and traffic conditions, none of which were apparent on the basis of information known to the person dispatching the run at the time it was begun.” Although the rule allows up to 13 hours of driving time under adverse conditions, instead of the normal 11 hours, it does not provide a corresponding extension of the 14-hour driving window to 16 hours.
C. 30-Minute Break
Under 49 CFR 395.3(a)(3)(ii), except for drivers who qualify for either of the short-haul exceptions in § 395.1(e)(1) or (2), driving is not permitted if more than 8 hours have passed since the end of the driver’s last off-duty or sleeper-berth period of at least 30 minutes. (The 30-minute break rule does not apply to drivers who operate CMVs within a 100 air-mile radius of their normal work reporting location and return to that location within 12 hours, as authorized by § 395.1(e)(1), or to drivers who do not need a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), operate within a 150 air-mile radius of their work reporting location, and meet certain other requirements, as authorized by § 395.1(e)(2)).
D. Split Sleeper Berth Time
There are special HOS rules for CMV drivers who operate vehicles equipped with a sleeper-berth. In essence, these rules allow a sleeper-berth user to divide the minimum 10 hours off-duty into an equivalent two separate periods. Drivers who use sleeper berths, as defined in § 393.76, must take at least 8 consecutive hours of the 10-hour off-duty period in the sleeper berth as required by § 395.1(g)(1)(ii)(A)(1). In Start Printed Page 42634addition to the 8- through 10-hour sleeper-berth period, in order to acquire additional driving time the driver using the sleeper berth exception must, either earlier or later in the duty period, have a separate period of at least 2 hours off-duty, which may be in the sleeper berth if desired. It does not matter which rest period is taken first. After the second required rest period is completed, the driver will have a new point on the clock from which to calculate hours available.
