The FMCSA this week announced they’ve denied the ATA’s application for an exemption from the 14-hour provision of HOS that would have allowed drivers to exclude their waiting time from their on-duty time.
Currently, few drivers are allowed this exemption. The FMCSA states the exemption has only been granted to “specially trained drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) that are specially constructed to service oil and natural gas extraction sites.”
The ATA proposed that the FMCSA issue a 2-year exemption to allow the exclusion of waiting time of drivers who are “servicing oil and natural gas sites and have the opportunity to rest while waiting at such sites,” the FMCSA’s Federal Register states.
The FMCSA says the ATA failed to show how the CMV drivers would achieve “a level of safety equivalent or greater than the level of safety obtained in the absence of the exemption.”
Read the announcement in the FMCSA’s Federal Register below.