More than 1,100 comments have already been filed in response to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s proposed hours-of-service rule changes.
The current deadline for filing comments is Oct. 7. Two days before that deadline, FMCSA Administrator Raymond Martinez is scheduled to speak at the annual conference of American Trucking Associations.
ATA has already asked FMCSA for an additional 30 days in order to collect feedback from members, while the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has asked for a 45-day extension. The Teamsters union also has asked for the comment deadline to be pushed to Nov. 21 to more “effectively develop responses to FMCSA's requests for comments.”
The agency has proposed numerous changes to the HOS rule, including extending the short-haul exemption, modifying the sleeper-berth exception and allowing for one off-duty break that would pause the driving window.
A public listening session concerning the HOS rule changes is scheduled for Sept. 17 at 1 pm Eastern Standard Time at the U.S. Department of Transportation's headquarters in Washington, DC.
