Four trucking companies recently filed petitions with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to exempt out of certain hours of service regulations.
California-based RJR Transportation, which operates 60 trucks mostly within 100 air miles of the company’s headquarters, requested to increase the short-haul exemption radius to 150 air miles for its drivers. The company says fewer than 5 percent of its drivers exceed the 100 air mile radius but not 150 air miles.
RJR says in its petition it would “be forced to make a substantial investment in updating its vehicle fleet to include ELDs for this short extension of the 100 air mile radius.” It adds that it currently has five drivers who maintain logs, but all 60 of the company’s trucks would need ELDs to allow the company to keep its flexibility to put any driver in any truck.
Comments on RJR’s request can be made here through Nov. 19.
Rota-Mill, a milled asphalt-hauling company out of Pennsylvania, is requesting relief from the 30-minute break requirement and an extension of the 12-hour limit for short-haul drivers.
The company says it has 21 drivers who are also heavy equipment operators that drive to a job location, then operate the equipment they deliver. The company adds these drivers actually driver for fewer than 5 hours each day.
Occasionally, Rota-Mill says its jobs get delayed and drivers are sometimes required to work longer than 12 hours. Because of this, the company is wants to allow its drivers to operate under the short-haul exemption but in a 14-hour work day rather than 12 hours. Additionally, the company wants its drivers to be able to use 30 minutes or more of on-duty “waiting time” to satisfy the 30-minute break requirement, as long as they don’t work during those 30 minutes.
