Federal rules regulating the maximum hours truck drivers can work have been debated since the 1930s, with the first rule in 1938 allowing 12 hours of work per day. Over the decades, various agencies proposed and finalized new rules, many of which faced legal challenges. The latest rule from 2011 kept the 11-hour daily driving limit but placed new restrictions on restart periods drivers must take between work weeks. These changes aimed to reduce fatigue but remained controversial as trucking and safety groups disagreed on the appropriate regulations.

1. Hours of Service,
Years of Debate: 1935-2013

2. Federal hours-of-service rules for truck drivers date back to the mid-1930s, when
trucks, roads and working conditions were much different than today. Trucking was
regulated by the agency charged with rail oversight: the Interstate Commerce
Commission.

3. Rules released in 1938 under the 1935 Motor Carrier Act let truckers work 12 hours
a day. In 1939 the ICC set a new daily limit: 10 hours of driving time. The 1939 rule
remained in place with a few tweaks until 2003. Here driver Bob Daugherty
completes a logbook in 1942.

4. By the 1990s, it was clear the decades-old HOS rule was outdated. Deregulation in
1980 spurred the rise of irregular route truckload carriers that kept drivers on the
road for weeks. Fatigue was a growing concern. In 1995, Congress closed the ICC
and ordered the Department of Transportation to rewrite the HOS rules.

5. In 2000, the new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published a proposed
HOS rule that would have created a 12-hour driving day. Trucking and highway
safety groups opposed the Clinton-era proposal. Republicans in Congress quashed
the rule-making after the election of President George W. Bush.

6. Lawsuits led the FMCSA to issue a new HOS proposal in 2003. The Bush-era
agency extended daily driving time to 11 hours and capped the driver’s workday at
14 hours, requiring 10 consecutive hours of rest a day. The DOT also introduced a
“34-hour restart” designed to help drivers start a new workweek more quickly.

7. Trucking groups widely supported the 2003 HOS rule, despite claims that drivers
and carriers would lose valuable working time. Public Citizen and other groups
opposed to longer driving times challenged the rule in court, however. In April
2004, a federal appeals court vacated the rule and sent it back to the FMCSA.

8. The federal appeals court overturned the 2003 rule on the grounds the FMCSA
failed to address driver health in its rule-making, as required by the 1995 law. While
the FMCSA went to work on that issue, Congress kept the 11/14-hour work limits in
place through language in the 2004 Surface Transportation Extension Act.

9. In August 2005, the FMCSA published a second final rule that retained most of the
provisions of the 2003 rule, including the 34-hour restart and 11 hours of daily
driving time. But changes to sleeper berth provisions and retention of the 11-hour
limit led to lawsuits from an owner-operator association and Public Citizen.

10. In September 2007, a federal appeals court overturned the 2005 rule, deciding the
FMCSA hadn’t provided enough time for comment or made public key parts of the
methodology behind the rule. In December 2007, the agency issued an interim final
regulation that again retained the 11/14-hour driver work limits.

11. The Bush administration issued its third final HOS rule in January 2009, just before
President Obama took office. The rule kept the hallmarks of the 2003 regulation in
place: the 11th hour and 34-hour restart. The Teamsters union and Public Citizen
again challenged the FMCSA in court, facing off against trucking industry groups.

12. In 2009, Public Citizen and the Teamsters union agreed to put lawsuits challenging
HOS regulations “in abeyance” while the FMCSA, now led by Obama-appointed
Administrator Anne S. Ferro, launched a new rule-making. The latest HOS rule,
issued in December 2011, kept the 11th hour but changed the 34-hour restart.

13. The fourth “final” HOS rule since 2003 took effect in February 2012, but the
compliance deadline for the most controversial provisions — limits on the use of
the 34-hour restart and a mandatory break — were postponed until July 1, 2013.
The American Trucking Associations and Public Citizen both sued the FMCSA.

14. In February, the FMCSA turned down the ATA’s request for a three-month delay of
the HOS compliance date pending a court ruling. On March 15, an often-skeptical
panel of the federal appeals court heard oral arguments from the ATA, Public
Citizen and the FMCSA, which defended its latest HOS rules. A decision is
pending.

15. The debated HOS changes took effect July 1, as scheduled. The 34-hour restart
may now be used only once every seven days (168 hours) and must include two 1
a.m. to 5 a.m. periods. That means unless drivers end their week between 7 p.m.
and 1 a.m., they must spend more than 34 hours off duty. Drivers must also take a
30-minute break after eight continuous hours on duty.

16. Although the FMCSA chose to keep the 11-hour daily driving limit, the agency has
expressed interest in further research into a shorter driving day. If the new rules
don’t reduce truck-related fatalities and accidents, pressure for change could
mount. The long debate over driver fatigue and hours isn’t over.

17. STAY INFORMED.
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