The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently published a final rule establishing new Hours of Service (HOS) regulations for commercial motor vehicles (CMV). The 2011 final rule—which was preceded by years of litigation—institutes a new 30-minute rest break requirement for drivers, mandates that the 34-hour restart provision include two off-duty periods between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., and revises the definition of on-duty time. The final rule also establishes penalties for egregious violations of the HOS regulations and revises log book requirements for drivers involved in oilfield operations.

New Rest Break Requirement

The 2011 final rule amends the regulations to prohibit a driver from driving if more than eight hours have passed since the driver’s last off-duty or sleeper-berth break of at least 30 minutes. A driver can take the required break anywhere between the third and eighth hour after coming on duty. A driver who plans to drive until the end of the 14th hour and wants to take only one break will need to take the break between the sixth and eighth hour after coming on duty. Drivers who do not perform driving activities after their eighth hour on duty can dispense with the break altogether. Drivers transporting certain hazardous materials (Division 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3 explosives) are exempt from the off-duty-break rule. Gasoline and fuel oil are considered Class 3 flammable liquids, so drivers transporting such liquids do not appear to be exempt from the break.

Drivers transporting Division 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3 explosives may count on-duty time spent attending to the CMV toward the break as long as they are not engaged in other on-duty work. Under 49 C.F.R. section 397.5, a motor vehicle is "attended to" when "the person in charge of the vehicle is on the vehicle, awake, and not in a sleeper berth, or is within 100 feet of the vehicle and has it within his/her unobstructed field of view." For drivers who qualify under the exception, the 30 minutes will continue to be on-duty time and drivers will have to annotate their logs to indicate when the on-duty breaks were taken.

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