U.S. representatives introduced legislation last week to increase truck driver flexibility under the hours of service rules.
The legislation, H.R. 6178, The Honest Operators Undertake Road Safety (HOURS) Act, was sponsored by Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., and has four co-sponsors.
Although the full text of the bill has yet to be published, Crawford said, “The bill offers narrow and reasonable changes that harmonize short-haul exemption rules, propose clarity for certain agricultural and livestock drivers and carriers, and remove irrelevant and redundant paperwork requirements. The HOURS Act also clears the path forward for FMCSA to provide a rulemaking regarding split sleeper berth flexibility that could help to alleviate congestion, allowing a driver to plan their rest periods to avoid traffic.”
The American Trucking Associations expressed support for the bill, saying it “would provide common sense hours-of-service relief and flexibility for professional truck drivers while enhancing highway safety and supply chain efficiency.”
Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., a co-sponsor of the bill, said, “American truckers are the lifeblood of our economy. While the recent implementation of the electronic logging device mandate has helped make our roads and highways safer, it has highlighted the need to reform the hours of service rule that is the driver behind many of the issues our truckers are facing today."
The electronic logging device rule soft launched on Dec. 18, 2017, but drivers not in compliance could only receive a citation. Full implementation began April 1, 2018, in which non-compliant drivers could be placed out of service.
Data from the FMCSA shows that violations have significantly declined since full implementation of the ELD rule. The FMCSA said that since the start of this April, less than 1 percent (4,720) of all driver inspections (559,940) have resulted in the driver being cited for operating without a required ELD or grandfathered automatic onboard recording device, which can be used no later than Dec. 16, 2019. In December 2017, the number of inspections that yielded hours-of-service violations totaled 1.19 percent.