At least they kept the reset ability. I think the entire system is wrong. We need HOS that fit each driver type (regional, local, OTR, oversize, etc...) not a one size fits all deal like this. -The DOT Doctor

Trucking news: It’s final—HOS regulations to stay

FMCSA elects to maintain current HOS regulations allowing drivers to drive 11 hours in 15-hour work day

John D. Schulz, Contributing Editor -- Logistics Management, 11/18/2008

WASHINGTON—The good news for shippers is basically no news: there is going to be no change in the current hours-of-service (HOS) regulations governing approximately 3 million long-haul truck drivers.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), in a move welcomed by both shippers and carriers, has decided to maintain the current HOS regulations. Thus ends an eight-year legal and procedural battle on the HOS regs, which went largely unchanged from 1935 until FMCSA first offered its first revision back in 2000.

FMCSA said it was adopting as final its interim final rule adopted 11 months ago. That allows drivers to drive 11 hours within a 15-hour work day with a 34-hour restart provision. Both provisions had been challenged in court by Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway Safety and other groups on procedural grounds. The final rule was scheduled to be published in Wednesday’s Federal Register and will become effective Jan. 19, the final day of the lame-duck Bush administration.

“There have been procedural rules that have been identified by the court. We are properly addressing the concerns of the court,” FMCSA Administrator John H. Hill said in a conference call. “I feel confident that moving forward is the best public policy at this time.”

Both shippers and carriers have adapted to the new rules that went into effect 2003, despite court challenges. The biggest change was a push by carriers to urge shippers to become more efficient at their loading docks since drivers’ waiting time was no longer counted as off-duty time, but rather part of the drivers’ work day.

Drivers are limited to 60 hours driving in seven days, or 70 in eight days, while allowing those clocks to be reset by taking 34 straight off-duty hours.