The HOURS Act: Yet Another Bill Regarding the Hours-of-Service

Earlier this week, a new bipartisan bill was introduced in the White house, which, if signed into law, would reform some of the regulations for the hours of service (HOS). The bill is backed by one of the trucking industry’s leading trade associations. It also would allow the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to move more quickly on any rulemaking meant to provide drivers with split sleeper berth flexibility pare down the number of supporting documents drivers are required to maintain under the electronic logging device mandate.

On 21^st of June, the bill, called The Honest Operators Undertake Road Safety Act (HOURS Act, H.R. 6178) was introduced by Reps. Rick Crawford and Bruce Westerman from R-Arkansas,and Sanford Bishop from D-Georgia.

The new bill’s legislation will be supported by the American Trucking Association, as they announced last Thursday.

“Now that the trucking industry is coming into full compliance with the electronic logging mandate, the next step in improving truck safety and supply chain efficiency is to use the data these ELDs collect to make needed improvements to the underlying hours-of-service rules,” said American Trucking Association’s President and CEO Chris Spear.

The proposed regulations are as follows:

1. Like other bills aimed at reforming the hours of service, the HOURS act introduces changes specificly aimed at the livestock and agriculture sector. The HOURS Act would exempt drivers hauling livestock or agricultural products from the hours-of-service rules within 150 air-miles of the source of their load, regardless of state-designated planting or harvesting season, rather than only during state-designated harvesting and planting seasons.
   
   
2. The HOURS act would also cut the number of documents drivers must have to verify the accuracy of their electronic logs. Current regulations require drivers to maintain at least eight supporting documents for their 24-hour work period, including fuel receipts, bills of lading and dispatch records, so they can verify the accuracy of their electronic logs. The HOURS Act would cut the document burden to just two documents — the drivers need to only verify the start and end time of a driver’s daily on-duty period.
   
   
3. The HOURS act also aims at harmonizing the hours-of-service rules for shorthaul truck drivers by providing one single set of rules: exempting drivers from ELD requirements if they operate exclusively within 150 air-miles of their reporting location and complete their workday in 14 hours, ending the current two-tiered system.
   
   
4. Lastly, the HOURS Act would accelerate the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s already-in-progress efforts to provide flexibility in how drivers who take off-duty periods in sleeper berths split their rest time. Current regulations allow drivers to only split their sleeper berth time into segments of 8 hours and 2 hours, for the required 10-hour off-duty period every 24 hours. But FMCSA is looking into the feasibility of allowing more flexible split sleeper options, such as 7-3, 6-4 and 5-5.
   
   If the agency pursues a rule to alter split sleeper time, the HOURS Act would allow FMCSA to skip the advanced notice of proposed rulemaking stage and move directly to proposing the rule and accepting public comments.

The HOURS Act is just the latest in a flurry of legislative actions designed to modify HOS and/or ELD regulation requirements.