The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on March 18 issued an expanded national emergency declaration to provide hours-of-service regulatory relief to commercial vehicle drivers transporting emergency supplies in response to the coronavirus outbreak in both interstate and intrastate.
FMCSA’s expanded declaration provides for regulatory relief for commercial motor vehicle operations providing direct assistance supporting emergency relief efforts intended to meet immediate needs. Relief includes a number of items including but not limited to:
Fuel.
Equipment, supplies and persons necessary to establish and manage temporary housing, quarantine.
Just to name a couple permitted uses of the waiver.
The expanded declaration stipulates that direct assistance does not include routine commercial deliveries, including mixed loads with a nominal quantity of qualifying emergency relief added to obtain the benefits of the emergency declaration.
To ensure continue safety on the nation’s roadways, the emergency declaration stipulates that once a driver has completed his or her delivery, the drive must receive a minimum of 10 hours off duty if transporting property.
The expanded waiver is effective immediately until April 12, 2020. The original waiver began on March 13, 2020.