FMCSA amends rules for emergency declaration

The Federal Motor Carriers Administration (FMCSA) will change the rules for exempting motor carriers who provide direct assistance when an emergency is declared.

In a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on the Federal Register, the changes “would ensure that the relief granted through emergency declarations is appropriate and tailored to the specifics of the circumstances and emergency being addressed. The FMCSA also proposes revisions to the process for extending an automatic emergency exemption where circumstances warrant.”

The NPRM would “modify the definition for emergency to clarify that emergency regulatory relief under rule 390.23 generally does not apply to economic conditions that are caused by market forces, including shortages of raw materials or supplies, labor strikes, driver shortages, inflation, or fluctuations in freight shipment or brokerage rates, unless such conditions or events cause an immediate threat to human life and result in a declaration of an emergency.”

Further, the NPRM “would also remove the definition for emergency relief as that term would no longer be used in rule and would amend the definition of direct assistance to incorporate the essential components of the former emergency relief definition.”

While presidential declarations of emergency would continue to trigger a 30-day exemption from all Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations in parts 390 through 399, the proposed rule would limit the duration and scope of the existing automatic regulatory relief that takes effect upon a regional declaration of an emergency by a governor, a governor’s authorized representative or FMCSA, according to the NPRM.

The automatic regulatory relief would apply for only five days, as opposed to 30 days, and would exempt CMV drivers only from the HOS regulations in rules 395.3 and 395.5.

“This change would both shorten the time the automatic regulatory relief is in place as well as limit the scope of relief provided, ensuring that any impact on safety continues to be minimized during the period of the automatic regulatory relief,” according to the NPRM. “FMCSA determined that the period of five days for automatic relief was appropriate for regional declarations of emergency, as its experience in monitoring emergency declarations demonstrated that in most cases, the actual emergency (e.g., the specific weather event or highway accident) is over within five days.”

In a statement, the Independent Driver-Owner-Operators Association (OOIDA) said that “the FMCSA’s acknowledgment that emergency announcements have not negatively impacted safety shows that the agency needs to do more to provide overall flexibility in hours for truckers.”