In December of 2014, two of the hours of service rules in regards to driver restarts were suspended pending further study. The suspension was in effect until September 30, 2015.
The good news is that the FMCSA has completed the driver restart study. Huge thanks to the drivers that participated in that study. The completion of the study was done on October 1, 2015 and will probably be published sometime in December of 2015.
The question remains if the hours of service rules will be implemented again before the result of the study is reviewed.
The entire trucking industry is supportive of improving safety on the roadway and alert drivers. The study should help to determine the effectiveness of the rules.
Traveling between 1 am and 5 am can be very appealing to drivers to avoid high traffic times and areas. We will keep you up to date on this issue.
Be safe.
