U.S. DOT asked the public which transportation regulations should be eliminated. Hundreds of people answered.

Hundreds of people shared public comments in response to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) request for feedback on which transportation-related regulations should be eliminated or modified.

Earlier this month, USDOT published a Notice in the Federal Register asking for public input on which existing regulations could be modified or repealed while continuing to ensure safety within the U.S. transportation system.

The call for public comment came at the behest of the Trump Administration, which issued an executive order calling for federal agencies to identify 10 regulations that could be eliminated for every new regulation that is proposed as part of larger deregulatory efforts.

Since the notice was published on April 3, nearly 300 public comments have been received, with many of the commenters zeroing in on regulations impacting the trucking industry, including Hours of Service requirements, Electronic Logging Device rules, broker transparency rules, an upcoming speed limiter rule, CDL and citizenship rules, and driver training requirements.

Take a look below to see a sampling of the public comments sent to USDOT.

• Delete def, enforce broker transparency, and make 34 hr breaks optional. As long as you take your ten hr breaks you should have a full 11 hrs to drive the next day. No one sleeps for 34 hrs.
• The DOT physical system is useless and abusive. All of the examinations presently performed, or for that matter available to medicine, are not able to distinguish those drivers who will have a health-induced accident in the succeeding 1-2 years from those who will not. Because of this the system must either deny driving privileges to an enormous number to prevent a single accident, or accept the accidents happening. The superior way to reduce accidents is to require that drivers maintain insurance against health-induced accidents. Insurers will then prorate the premiums and drive drivers to better health, or deny insurance to those who are at high risk. With this in place FMCSA will be nothing but duplicative and expensive waste.
• Regarding the 11 and 14 hour drive and work times. I run out of the 14 hour clock long before I run out of drive time. Due to the time used up while waiting to load and loading (time which I’m in the sleeper), the 14 hour clock causes me to drive as fast as I can to get as far as I can in the 6 to 8 hours I have of actual drive time.
  As for the required 10 hour reset, all it does is waste valuable time during working hours. I arrive at my receiver with lots of drive and work time available, but my receiver is closing or already closed and I have to wait until the next day or sometimes after my 34 hour reset to unload.
  Regarding moving my truck during the 10 hour reset. Sometimes I need to move out of another truck’s way, especially a wide load. It should be allowed to move a truck a short distance or time without being penalized. Taking a few seconds to move my truck a short distance should not cause me to restart my ten hour reset. Ten hours should be reduced to 7 or 8 hours. That’s plenty of time to rest.
• First off, the proposed speed limiter rule should be thrown in the trash because everywhere it’s used and mandated, it pisses everybody off to the point a truck merely trying to change lanes will have cars shooting the gap to get in front of said truck before getting stuck behind it, and sit god knows how long in the inevitable 10 mile elephant race. Take a drive in Canada on the 401 and this is all you will get. California where trucks are still stuck at 55 and cars drives like the 65/70 is a suggestion. The hours of service should be a 14 hour work day with a 8 to 10 off period that can be split with that time being used as the driver sees fit, not the pencil pusher behind the desk.
• I think its absolutely PATHETIC that we allow CDL drivers licenses to drivers who can not speak nor read the ENGLISH language, that is disgusting!! It is dangerous and has been responsible for the deaths and accidents that are far too many on our highways and roads. Secondly, this is bullsh*t that these brokers have gotten away with driving the profits from the companies who are responsible for the transport of goods while they hide away their profits and are not transparent in their business practices. We have got to do something about the large corporate companies that have hired these drivers who cheat the system or are forced to drive and then wait and have loads turned down after spending our time and money to arrive for these loads. This entire industry has turned to large corporate entities and rip offs and thieves as brokers, and that has killed the small companies and driven driver pay and earnings to the dirt.
• Eliminate sleep apnea testing. Majority of truck drivers know we have sleep apnea.
• Why should the whole nation have to abide by rules passed by California? The DEF law has done nothing to help the trucking industry. It has given the truck owners headaches over how much it cost to maintain this system. I drive for a company and it cost them 2K just to clean the filter. Another 200K miles it will cost 4K to replace it. It cost way more than diesel fuel. People that have bypassed this system have shown less cost on maintaining and better fuel mileage vs a def truck. These newer engines are far advanced over the engines of yesterday.
• As an otr truck driver for 24 yrs I have dealt with a lot of changes in the trucking industry. First and most aggravating regulation out there is the 30 min break. That needs to go immediately. Second is there is no flexibility in your day. Once the clock starts that’s it. This causes a lot of problems out here on the road in the real world. There needs to be options, a way to stop the clock. One size does not fit all.

The deadline to submit a comment is May 5, 2025. You can submit a comment online at this link. You can also send your comment in an email to Transportation.RegulatoryInfo@dot.gov and include “Regulatory Reform RFI” in the subject line of the message.