FMSCA Extends Hours of Service Waiver for Livestock Haulers Again

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has extended through Feb. 28, 2022, a 50-state emergency declaration offering regularity relief for drivers who are hauling certain supplies during the COVID-19 crisis. 

The Hours of Service (HOS) rule limits truckers to 11 hours of driving time and 14 consecutive hours of on-duty time in any 24-hour period and requires prescribed rest periods.

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) thanked the Biden administration, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Meera Joshi, deputy administrator of DOT’s FMCSA for extending a waiver for commercial truckers from the federal HOS regulation.

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and prompted by NPPC’s efforts to ensure pork producers could continue transporting hogs, the FMCSA included livestock haulers in an initial emergency declaration that provided an exemption from the HOS regulation for commercial truckers hauling essential supplies, including livestock. The waiver subsequently was expanded to cover the delivery of livestock feed, NPPC reports.

“We’re pleased the FMCSA recognized the challenges COVID still presents and the problems it has created, including supply chain issues, for the livestock industry and acted accordingly,” NPPC President Jen Sorenson said in a release. “Extending the HOS waiver ensures that livestock truckers can get hogs to market safely and efficiently. Likewise, truckers hauling livestock feed can get those essential supplies to farms.”

The FMCSA extended the waiver in August to Nov. 30. In that extension, the agency also requested that livestock haulers who use the waiver report that within five days of the end of each month on their FMCSA portal.

"A provision in the infrastructure bill recently signed into law expanded the miles agricultural truckers can drive without the HOS restrictions. Divers hauling livestock already were exempt from the HOS rule for the first 150 air miles of their runs. Now they also will be exempt from HOS rules for the final 150 air miles from their final destination, providing additional flexibility to ensure drivers can safely complete their deliveries while protecting other drivers and ensuring the welfare of the animals in their care," NPPC said in a release.

The waiver extension applies to truck drivers who are hauling the following supplies in direct support of COVID-19 relief efforts:

• Livestock and livestock feed
• Medical supplies and equipment related to the testing, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19
• Vaccines, constituent products, and medical supplies and equipment including ancillary supplies/kits for the administration of vaccines, related to the prevention of COVID-19
• Supplies and equipment necessary for community safety, sanitation, and prevention of community transmission of COVID-19 such as masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, soap and disinfectants
• Food, paper products and other groceries for emergency restocking of distribution centers or stores
• Gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and ethyl alcohol
• Supplies to assist individuals impacted by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., building materials for individuals displaced or otherwise impacted as a result of the emergency)

The FMCSA also reiterated that the HOS waiver does not give motor carriers the right to compel fatigued drivers to operate. Any driver who informs a motor carrier that they need rest is to be given 10 hours before they are required to return to duty, FMCSA said.

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