FMCSA rejects trucker’s request for a 5 year HOS exemption

The Federal Highway Transportation Safety Administration (FMCSA) has ruled on a truck driver’s request for an exemption from federal working hours regulations.

On November 9, the FMCSA announced its decision to reject Leland Schmitt Jr.’s application for a 5-year HOS exemption.

From the FMCSA notice:

“The applicant believes that his level of safety under this exemption would be better than he could achieve by complying with the HOS regulations because he will receive the proper rest needed when he needs it. He points to his excellent driving record and 30 years of safe driving experience. He states that he has not been involved in any crashes and that he has accumulated over three million safe driving miles during his truck driving career. He further indicates that he is not requesting an exemption from the required 11 hours of total driving time, which will be properly recorded by the electronic logging device (ELD) in the vehicle. In his application for exemption, he also cites a sleep study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which he states finds ‘no impact from more night sleep, though naps help.”

The FMCSA decided to reject the petition because “Mr. Schmitt was unable to demonstrate that he would maintain a level of safety equal to or greater than that which was achieved without exception to the rules.”

In June 2022, the FMCSA published an exemption request from Schmitt, who is currently the owner-operator and drives a truck leased from D&E Transport in Clearwater, Minnesota. He has 30 years of experience driving commercial vehicles.

Schmitt’s main argument against the federal HOS rules is that these rules “contradict” his natural sleep patterns.

Regarding Schmitt’s request, the FMCSA received 651 public comments.

Of those, 350 were in favor, 68 were against, and 229 were neither for nor against the request. Many commentators have argued that trucking is over-regulated. Others felt that the FMCSA should not issue this kind of exception for a single driver. A third group of commenters wrote that if an exemption is granted, it should apply to all drivers of commercial vehicles.

The agency agreed with commentators who argued that “if it exempts one person from HOS rules, it could open the door to a huge number of similar exemption requests.”