The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced it has extended the public comment period on the proposed changes to the hours-of-service (HOS) rules.

Acting upon requests from the American Trucking Associations, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, FMCSA extended the comment deadline two additional weeks to October 21, 2019.

More than 1,000 comments have been submitted on the proposed HOS changes since they were published last month in the Federal Register.

FMCSA announced five proposed changes to the HOS rules on August 22, 2019. The proposed changes are:

• Changing the short-haul exception from certain commercial motor vehicle drivers from 12 to 14 hours and extending the distance limit from 100 air-miles to 150 air-miles.
• Extending the adverse driving conditions exception by two hours.
• Requiring a minimum 30-minute break before eight consecutive hours of driving time occurs. The break would be for at least 30 minutes and could be satisfied with on-duty, not driving time, or off-duty time, rather than just off-duty time.
• Modifying the sleeper-berth exception to allow drivers to split their required 10 hours off-duty time into two periods of at least seven consecutive hours in one period and not less than two consecutive hours either off-duty or in the sleeper berth.
• Allowing one off-duty break of at least 30 minutes, but not more than three hours, that would pause a truck driver’s 14-hour driving window, provided the driver takes 10 consecutive hours off-duty at the end of the work shift.

Comments can be submitted at regulations.gov by accessing Docket Number FMCSA-2018-0248.