34 Hour Restart Likely To Be Suspended

The recently unveiled House and Senate appropriations bill does not include funding for the FMCSA to enforce its fiercely-debated HOS (hours-of-service) restart regulation. Implemented in 2013, the restart regulation requires that drivers take two time periods off between the hours of 1 AM - 5 AM during the 34 hour restart, with restarts limited to one per week.

A hot-button issue in the trucking industry, the suspension of the restart provision would be welcome news to organizations such as the American Trucking Association, who argued that the provision would negatively impact driver productivity as well as increase the amount of traffic on the roads during peak drive times, such as Monday mornings.

The FMCSA has defended the provision, stating that it believes nighttime sleep is more beneficial for drivers than daytime sleep. The Obama administration, Teamsters union, and other safety advocates have also expressed support for the provision, but Congress has-- for now-- agreed to suspend the provision and return to the pre-2013 restart regulations.

While the House and Senate have reached a tentative agreement on the appropriations bill (which will fund the federal government through September of 2015), it must still be voted on by Congress and signed by President Obama. Should the appropriations bill pass Congress and be signed into law by President Obama, the suspension of the restart provision will last until September 30, 2015 or until the FMCSA completes its report.

The FMCSA's study will compare the work schedules, fatigue levels, and safety histories of two groups of drivers-- one group following the pre-2013 restart provision and one following the post-2013 regulations. Once the data has been collected, a panel of scientific and medical experts must review it before passing it along to the Inspector General of the DOT.