09/14/2006
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TL Express Update:
FMCSA clarifies hours-of-service enforcement.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued a memorandum outlining enforcement policies for certain sections of the new hours-of-service regulations that have a compliance date of October 1, 2005. The memorandum addresses use of the 34-hour restart provision and the use of sleeper berth time
34-Hour Restart
Section 395.3(c) states that a driver may “restart” his/her 60 hour/7 day or 70 hour/ 8 day period after having at least 34 consecutive hours off duty.
Sleeper Berth
The current rule states that two qualifying sleeper berth periods will extend the 14-hour period. Questions have been posed to FMCSA as to how to treat a situation in which a driver appropriately accumulates 10-hours off duty using qualifying sleeper berth periods, and then goes off duty for 10 or more consecutive hours.
According to FMCSA, if the split sleeper berth exception (at least two qualifying sleeper berth periods) is used appropriately, the last sleeper berth period may combined with the 10 or more consecutive hours off duty. The driver doesn’t need to spend time in the sleeper berth upon going off duty for 10 or more consecutive hours in order to remain in compliance.
However, if a driver has only one sleeper berth period, it may not be combined with the 10 or more consecutive hour-off duty period, and the sleeper berth period would count toward the calculation of the 14-hour rule.
14 Hours
The memorandum also confirms the current understanding of the calculation of the 14-hour on-duty limit when using the sleeper berth. Compliance with the 14-hour rule is calculated by totaling the time immediately before and after each qualifying sleeper berth period, the same way it is calculated for the 11-hour driving rule (and the way calculations were done for the 10 and 15-hour rules).
Another clarification allows the split sleeper berth provision to continue to be used even if the driver violates the 11- 14 hour rules.
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