The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed a three-month pilot program to assess the safety of allowing drivers to split their sleeper berth time.
The agency said in a Federal Register notice published June 6 it wants to study “safety performance and fatigue levels” by granting about 200 truck drivers permission to split their sleeper berth time.
“Driver metrics would be collected for the duration of the study, and participants’ safety performance and fatigue levels would be analyzed,” FMCSA said.
Under the current hours-of-service rules, drivers are required to take eight consecutive hours in the sleeper, plus two additional consecutive hours in the sleeper or off-duty before going back on-duty.
After a 60-day comment period, FMCSA will announce a projected starting date for the pilot program. Drivers will be allowed to split the sleeper berth time into two segments, FMCSA said.
The agency has created a web site to provide more information.
