34-Hour Restart Rule Will Stay Put; Has No Clear ‘Net Benefit’

After more than two years of ambiguity surrounding the 34-hour restart rule for commercial truckers, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) finally shed some light on the controversial mandate.

The rule originally stated that once a week commercial truckers must select a time to stop driving and wait for 34 hours before resuming, in order to reset a driver’s hours of service. In a long-awaited report, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) clarified a few uncertainties regarding the rule, including the following:

• Restarts will no longer require a 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. period
• Restarts are no longer limited to once per week

Congress suspended both of the above regulations in December 2014 awaiting the results of this report. The DOT report found no “net benefit” for the “restart rule on driver operations, safety, fatigue and health.”

Read more here: 34-hour restart regs to stay put