The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration updated the hours-of-service rules to provide professional drivers with more flexibility without sacrificing safety. The changes include:

• Bringing the short-haul on-duty period in line with the rest of the industry, while increasing the air-mile radius of short-haul trucking to 150 air miles.
• Allowing drivers, under certain adverse driving conditions, to extend their driving window by up to two hours.
• Requiring a 30-minute rest period after eight consecutive hours of driving time has elapsed rather than the first eight hours of duty.
• Allowing the 30-minute rest period to be taken as on duty, not driving.
• Allowing greater flexibility for how drivers split their sleeper berth time.

• “No rule will satisfy everyone, even within our industry, but this one—crafted with a tremendous amount of input and data—is a good example of how by working with stakeholders on all sides, government can craft a rule that simultaneously benefits the industry, specifically drivers, and maintains highway safety,” says American Trucking Associations Chairman Randy Guillot, president of Triple G Express.