Truckers get hour break due to lack of fuel in several states
The governors of South Dakota and Wyoming have issued state of emergency statements that cut working hours for some truck drivers in those states.
The declarations apply to drivers hauling gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem’s order points to low inventories and outages of fuel, while the “return of normal supply flows to fuel terminals in South Dakota is not expected until autumn.”
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon’s order notes that increased travel since the pandemic and an early bushfire season in the region have contributed to the state’s fuel shortage.
Drivers transporting gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to either of the two states will be exempt from hours-of-service rules. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also clarified its emergency declaration rules, noting that the HOS waiver continues to apply to a driver after he or she has delivered the load, as long as he or she is returning to pick up more emergency relief supplies.
“For example, if the governor of the state of Wyoming issues an emergency declaration for the transportation of aviation fuel for wildfire suppression, and a driver picks up aviation fuel in Nevada to be transported to Wyoming for wildfire suppression and the trip goes through Idaho into Wyoming, the trip is covered by the emergency declaration,” the agency said.
“But once the driver is no longer providing direct assistance to the state emergency, in Wyoming in this example, such as deadheading back to Nevada to pick up cargo not related to the Wyoming emergency, the driver is no longer covered by the emergency declaration.”
