The bill’s hours of service-related provisions would tie the future of hours of service rules to the outcome of a pending Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration study in the works since early 2015.
The two outcomes are (1) a return to 2013-enacted rules governing truckers’ 34-hour restarts or (2) a return to 2011 restart rules, albeit with a new 73-hour cap on the amount of hours truck drives can remain on duty in a seven day period.
An amendment floated this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, which would have simply restored the 2013-implemented restart rules, was not brought to the Senate floor for a vote.
The bill, the 2017 FY Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, passed Congress’ upper chamber as-is by an 89-8 vote.
Despite the Senate’s passage of the bill, the hours of service changes have a long way to go before becoming law. The measures also face stiff opposition in the U.S. House, which just this week floated an alternative plan. The House plan would remove the FMCSA study from the equation and simply revert the rules governing the use of a 34-hour restart to those in place in 2011 and currently in place now.
Under the House plan, truckers’ 34-hour restarts would not need to include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods, and the frequency of a restart’s use would not be limited.
