The new, revised hours-of-service rule has been sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, moving it closer towards publication.
As reported last week, the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration missed the Oct. 28 deadline for publishing the rule.
The proposal must be vetted by the White House first.
According to Truckinginfo.com, the OMB typically takes up to 90 days to finish its work.
After that, the rule goes back to FMCSA for final touches and forwarding to the Federal Register for publication.
The expectation is that the rule will be published in January or early February.
While the details of the changes are sealed, the agency is expected to cut down on allowable driving time – possibly from 11 to 10 hours a day — as well as requiring drivers take another one-hour break during the day by limiting on-duty time within the 14-hour driving window to 13 hours. Another significant change would modify the 34-hour restart to include two periods between midnight and 6 a.m., to be used only once a week.
Various Republican leaders have asked the White House to cancel the rewrite and some have indicated they would fight the new rule legislatively.
