Hours of Service of Drivers: Oregon Trucking Associations' Application for Exemption
Notice of final determination; granting of exemption.
FMCSA announces its decision to grant the application of the Oregon Trucking Associations (OTA) for a limited exemption from the Agency's hours-of-service (HOS) regulation requiring commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers to take 30-minute rest breaks at specified intervals in their duty day. This exemption is limited to CMV drivers engaged in transporting timber from Oregon forestlands, and further limited to periods of the year in which the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) has formally restricted logging operations to certain hours of the day due to an elevated risk of forest fire. FMCSA believes that the rest breaks during these periods of restricted operating hours may reduce the volume of timber that OTA drivers can deliver, affecting the economic viability of the Oregon lumber industry. The Agency grants this limited exemption on condition that these exempt drivers do not drive after the 12th hour of their duty day. The Agency finds that the CMV operations of OTA timber transporters under this limited exemption would likely achieve a level of safety equivalent to or greater than the level of safety that would be obtained in the absence of the exemption.