New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine has extended until Monday, May 1 an emergency exemption to intrastate trucking regulations that allows greater flexibility in getting fuel deliveries to service stations. The emergency order issued Friday night, April 21, is designed to alleviate spot fuel shortages in New Jersey. Virginia and Pennsylvania have enacted similar orders.
The exemption extends the number of hours a truck driver can drive in the Garden State to avoid bottlenecks at oil refineries, where drivers had been resting in compliance with hours-of-service regulations before making local fuel deliveries. According to New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri, the exemption was driven in part by the high price of fuel and in part by an annual switch from the type of gas sold in the winter to that sold during the warmer summer months.
