Hazmat response company asks FMCSA for hours-of-service rule relief

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is considering a request for regulatory relief from a company that responds to hazardous materials incidents.

FMCSA received a request for exemption from hours-of-service (HOS) requirements from Lone Star Haz Mat Response, LLC.

Lone Star provides hazardous materials incident response, environmental cleanup, and related emergency response services under contract with state and federal agencies, including the Texas Department of Transportation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Lone Star is seeking an exemption that would allow field response” drivers to exceed HOS for the purpose of returning to their normal work reporting location or residence following hazardous materials incident response operation.

The company says that while drivers are only dispatched only when they have sufficient hours available, “operations are unpredictable in timing and duration, and require immediate deployment at all hours of the day and night.”

Because of the “unpredictable duration of incident response operations,” Lone Star asks for HOS relief only to allow drivers to return to their normal work reporting location or their residence.

Lone Star estimates that the HOS exemption would only be used 4 to 5 times per month.

FMCSA will accept public comment from “all interested persons” on Lone Star’s application for an HOS exemption after it is published in the Federal Register on June 30, 2026.