HOURS OF SERVICE RULE CHANGES EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
CHANGES TO THE 34 HOUR RESTART RULE– EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!
Effective immediately, you will now be able to reset your 70-hour clock simply by taking 34
consecutive hours off-duty.
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This 34 hour period will no longer need to contain two periods from 0100 to 0500.
There is no longer a limit to how often you can do a restart. You do not have to wait 168
hours.
You are still required to take a 30-minute break within 8 hours of coming on-duty for the day.
This suspension will be in place till at least September, 2015.
For just the next 8 days (December 16 – 23), you will need to manually track your 70-hour
clock during that time. Why?
o The OmniTRACS device is being updated to remove the current 0100 to 0500 and 168
hour parts. The device cannot handle two sets of rules (the new suspension and the old
provision). So when the device has been updated, it will grant incorrect restarts that
happened in the prior 8 days. To deal with this you must manually track your 70 hour
clock for 8 days or till your next restart whichever happens first.
o All drivers should continue to use the electronic logs!
Your mobile device will be updated automatically without needing a reboot or restart. The
update will begin in the next day or so.
You will know your mobile is updated when you see on the Summary tab that the Next
(34hr) Restart’ field and Reject button are gone.
This change is happening because the Federal Funding Bill (Omnibus) passed by Congress has
suspended the changes to the 34-hour restart provision of the hours of service rule that took
effect back in July of 2013. The suspension of enforcement in the law is in effect until
September 30, 2015.
However, if as of that date, FMCSA has not provided a naturalistic study justifying the
restrictions on the 34-hour restart, the suspension will continue until they do justify it. The study
will compare the operational, safety, health, and fatigue impacts of the current restart provisions
and the previous restart provisions. The final report must include a recommendation on whether
the current restart provisions have a greater net benefit than the previous restart provisions.
Questions on this topic, please reach to Regulatory by contacting either Andrea Sequin
[email protected] orTammy Carpenter [email protected]
Thank you.