Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

Finally, HOS is finalized! Well, sort of. On November 19, 2008 the FMSCA decided on the final rule adopting the provisions of its Dec. 17, 2007, interim final rule on the HOS rules.

According to Etrucker.com: “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 in 60 days, or Jan. 19, one day before President-elect Barack Obama takes office. ”

Which means that there is always the possibility of them revisiting HOS once President-elect Obama takes office. Why can they not just say “Ok, this is it, let’s not change it for X number of years?” instead of consistently swaying back and forth between yes and no.

Sleeper berth hours were not revisited this time around. However, electronic devices were. “In a related development, FMCSA also is publishing in the Nov. 19 Federal Register a notice of policy change regarding use of motor carriers’ advanced technology for compliance purposes. FMCSA had issued a memorandum in 1997 limiting use of such technology in compliance reviews and enforcement on the grounds that the government didn’t want to stifle technologies that were just emerging.

“This policy afforded the industry the opportunity to fully integrate the technology in its operations and overall safety management system,” FMCSA says in the notice to be published Wednesday.

But now advanced technology has become widely accepted and an integral component of the industry‘s logistics and operations management systems, FMCSA says. Since the policy has achieved its purpose, FMCSA says it is now rescinding it. The decision to reverse the policy may accomplish much of what the agency intended in proposing electronic onboard recorders. ”

So something else the FMSCA cannot make their mind up about, whether or not onboard recorders are good. First they did not want them and companies went ahead and started using them, now they DO want them and companies do not want them. It’s almost like a child. You tell a child not to do something and they do it anyway, then when you tell the child it is ok to do it, the child no longer wants to do it. Amazing how that works!

Hopefully though, they will leave HOS alone for awhile, since everyone is “almost” used to it now!