FMCSA Eases Hours of Service for Trucks Serving Port of Baltimore
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued an hours-of-service waiver late last Thursday night, April 4, for trucking affected by the collapse of Maryland’s Francis Scott Key bridge. Of its several provisions, the waiver allows drivers to add two hours to the current 11 allowable hours of daily driving under the 14-hour on-duty limit. The two-hour extension will apply to “commodities rerouted from the port of Baltimore.” But the definition of commodities is broad.
The waiver includes most of the key products that had been regularly imported into Baltimore: shipping containers (though Baltimore is a relatively small intermodal port), fuel, automobiles and other “roll-on/roll-off” commodities such as farm equipment. On a practical basis, the additional two hours can help a drayage driver based in Baltimore who might need to shift their operations to the port of Norfolk while waiting for the port of Baltimore to reopen.
The waiver also lifts HOS rules on trucks that are involved in the cleanup, if they are “transporting equipment and supplies related to immediate repairs to the roadways and navigable waterways” or removing debris from there, according to FMCSA.
Every year, TAT (formerly called Truckers Against Trafficking) honors a member of the trucking, bus or energy industry, whose direct actions help save or improve the lives of those exploited or prevent human trafficking from taking place, with the Harriet Tubman Award
Bob Costello has indicated that the freight market has improved – but very slowly – since January. It must be said that ATA’s indices are dominated by contract freight as opposed to spot rates.
Now, however, with Republican control of both houses of Congress and the White House (and, some say, the Supreme Court) I am optimistic that trucking will get a fairer shake than it has during Biden’s term in office.