The Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) provides an assessment of the costs and benefits of final rule changes in Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Hours of Service (HOS) regulations. The HOS regulations address the number of hours that a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver may drive, and the number of hours a CMV driver may be on duty before rest is required, as well as the minimum amount of time that must be reserved for rest and the total number of hours a driver may be on duty in a “work-week.”
This analysis considers and assesses the consequences of four potential regulatory options. Option 1 is to retain the current rule. Option 1 is the no-action alternative, which would retain the provisions of the current HOS rule. All costs are relative to Option 1. Options 2 through 4 require at least one break during the duty day (none is currently required), and limit the use of the 34-hour restart provision to once every 168 hours with at least 2 nights off duty. Options 2 through 4 differ only in driving time allowed between 10-hour breaks. Option 2 limits allowable daily driving to 10 hours, the driving limit that existed prior to the 2003 rule. Option 3 retains the 11 hours of driving allowed under the current rule. Option 4 allows only 9 hours of driving, or 1 hour less than Option 2. This RIA compares the costs and benefits (in 2008 dollars) of Options 2 through 4 relative to the current rule (i.e., Option 1) and assumes that there is full compliance with each of the options.