In The News

HOS rule clears final hurdle before publication

WASHINGTON — The latest Hours of Service rule is moving even faster through the rulemaking process than originally scheduled. The HOS rule cleared the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Thursday and could be published on the Federal Register soon.

Originally the rule was scheduled to move out of OMB Dec. 2. Then a new projected date of Dec. 30 was set, with expectation of the final HOS rule to be published Jan. 4, 2009. Now it appears that it will be released by the end of this year as hoped by the agency earlier in the year.

On Dec. 11, 2007, the FMCSA announced that it had issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) keeping intact the 2005 HOS rule which limits truckers to driving only 11 hours within a 14-hour period, after which they must go off duty for at least 10 hours.

The new rulemaking action was initiated in response to the July 2007 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that vacated specific provisions of the Agency's Hours of Service rule published on August 25, 2005. The Court invalidated two provisions: the first relates to increasing the daily driving limit from 10 to 11 hours; the second provision permits drivers to restart their count of weekly accumulations of hours after taking 34 consecutive hours off duty.

Once comments were received on the IFR, and additional studies and proof to back FMCSA’s latest rule were in place, a new final rule was written and will be released now that OMB has cleared it.

Details of the final rule are unknown to the public until publication.