Hours of Service - Rewriting The Hours of Service

Rewriting The Hours of Service

Drivers will be limited to 8 hours of continuous driving before requiring at least a 30 minute break. The 34 hour restart provision will still be in effect. However, drivers will only be allowed 1 restart per week and it must include 2 periods between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM. Drivers inside parked CMVs, even when not in the sleeper berth, will be able to count it as off-duty, and up to 2 hours either side of a sleeper-berth period while in the passenger seat will also count as off-duty.

This regulation has been codified into the Final Rule, and will come into force on the 27th February 2012 (for the additional Off Duty allowances) and 1 July 2012 (for the break rules, and restart limits).

Oilfield exemption:

• Also as proposed, the oilfield operations exemption will be revised. Under the new rule, "waiting time" for certain drivers at oilfields must be logged as off-duty and identified by a note in the "remarks" section or in a separate line.