FMCSA to study how truck driver work schedules impact crash risk

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) plans to study how the daily work schedules of commercial vehicle drivers impact overall driver performance and fatigue.

In a notice published on November 17, 2025 FMCSA announced plans to collect data as part of the study Crash Risks by Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) Driver Schedules “to answer important questions related to driver schedules and how these factors impact overall driver performance and fatigue.”

The agency plans to gather data from hours of service (HOS) duty logs, accident and incident data, and inspection violations records to “examine the relative risk of crashes and inspection violations based on various factors related to the driver’s work schedule and demographics.”

“This information collection supports the DOT Strategic Goal of Safety. The preamble of FMCSA’s 2011 final HOS rule (76 FR 81134) stated that FMCSA is committed to an analysis of the relative crash risk by driving hour, the impact of the changes in the HOS provisions, and examination of differences in crash risk after restarts that include 2 nights and those that do not. The HOS final rule also said that FMCSA would work with the OMB on the methodologies of these new statistical data collections,” FMCSA said in a preamble explaining the need for the data collection effort.

The FMCSA will accept public comment on any aspect of the data collection proposed through January 16, 2026. You can leave an online comment by following this link.

Studying driver schedules could indicate that FMCSA is interested in updating current HOS rules, possibly with an eye towards providing truckers with more control of their own driving day.

Earlier this year, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced two pilot programs to study the impact of providing truck drivers with increased HOS flexibility. The Split Duty Period pilot program will allow participating drivers to pause their 14-hour “driving window” for no less than 30 minutes and no more than three hours. The Flexible Sleeper Berth pilot program will allow drivers to divide their 10-hour off-duty requirement into “6/4” and “5/5” split period

The two pilots are part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pro-Trucker Package, which is aimed at improving the quality of life of American truck drivers.