A new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rule issued October 13 limits exemptions from safety regulations during emergency declarations (88 Fed. Reg. 70897).
Under the revised regulations, a presidential emergency declaration will continue to trigger a 30-day exemption from FMCSA safety regulations (49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 390 through 399), including hours-of-service (HOS) limits for commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers. Exemptions from safety requirements only cover carriers and drivers providing direct assistance during emergencies.
However, the revised rule limits regulatory relief offered during regional emergency declarations made by governors, their representatives, or the FMCSA. Automatic regulatory relief during a regional emergency declaration only applies for a 14-day period and only exempts carriers and drivers from HOS requirements.
The agency originally had proposed limiting regulatory relief for regional emergencies to a 5-day period but revised the provision from the proposal in response to stakeholder comments for the following reasons:
- A 5-day emergency exemption may be too short to provide emergency relief.
- There may be too little time for the FMCSA to receive and evaluate information on whether a longer exemption is warranted.
- Climate change has affected both the number and the severity of storms that necessitate emergency declarations.
The agency decided that 14 days of automatic regulatory relief would allow emergency relief efforts to continue without interruption while the FMCSA considers an extended exemption.
The revised regulation maintains statutory requirements under the Reliable Home Heating Act, allowing a governor to declare an emergency due to a shortage of residential heating fluid. Such declarations provide 30 days of regulatory relief for carriers and drivers operating a CMV to provide home heating fuel in a designated geographic area. A governor may extend exemptions 2 times for a total of 90 days.
However, exemptions for local heating fuel emergencies only last 5 days and only provide exemptions from the HOS requirements.
The revised rule also allows the FMCSA to extend or modify regulatory relief under an emergency declaration either of its own volition or upon request. Requests for extensions or modifications must be made by e-mail.
Most of the changes included in the final rule have been agency practice through modifications made to previous automatic exemptions, including those authorized during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FMCSA acknowledged that limiting automatic exemptions during regional emergencies to HOS requirements and not driver qualification and vehicle inspection requirements may result in costs for some carriers and drivers.
Because the revised rule reduces the period of automatic relief in regional emergencies from 30 to 14 days, the agency expects to see an uptick in requests for extensions. The FMCSA also acknowledged that preparing and submitting extension requests would impose a burden on carriers and drivers.
The agency concluded that narrowing the duration and scope of emergency exemptions tailors its regulatory relief to the emergencies addressed by emergency declarations. The agency believes that while most emergencies warrant exemptions from HOS requirements, exemption from requirements like driver qualification, vehicle inspection, parts, and accessories has no direct bearing on carriers’ ability to deliver emergency relief supplies.
The final rule becomes effective on December 12.