Hours of Service of Drivers; Pilot Program To Allow Commercial Drivers To Split Sleeper Berth Time

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Part 395</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FMCSA-2025-0193]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Hours of Service of Drivers; Pilot Program To Allow Commercial Drivers To Split Sleeper Berth Time</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notification of proposed pilot program; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> FMCSA proposes a pilot program allowing temporary regulatory relief from the Agency's regulation requiring one rest period of at least 7 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth for drivers who elect to split their time in the sleeper berth. Participation in the pilot program would be limited to approximately 256 drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) who possess a valid commercial driver's license (CDL) and regularly utilize the sleeper berth. Both drivers who wish to participate in the pilot and their employing motor carriers would be required to meet specific eligibility criteria to participate. Drivers selected for participation would provide FMCSA with data for a 4-month period, divided into a “baseline” period of 1 month, during which they would comply with the current sleeper berth regulations, and another period of 3 months, during which they would operate under an exemption allowing additional flexibility in how they may split their sleeper berth time. The Agency would use the data collected to compare drivers' safety performance and fatigue levels between the baseline and exemption periods. The goal of the analysis would be to assess whether additional flexibility in how sleeper berth time may be split achieves a level of safety equivalent to that which would be achieved absent the regulatory relief. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before November 17, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments identified by Docket Number FMCSA-2025-0193 using any of the following methods: • <E T="03">Federal eRulemaking Portal:</E> Go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FMCSA-2025-0193/document.</E> Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> Dockets Operations, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Ground Floor, Washington, DC 20590-0001. • <E T="03">Hand Delivery or Courier:</E> Dockets Operations, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Ground Floor, Washington, DC 20590-0001, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you, please call (202) 366-9317 or (202) 366-9826 before visiting Dockets Operations. • <E T="03">Fax:</E> (202) 493-2251. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Dr. Samuel White, Applied Research Division, FMCSA, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001; <E T="03">Samuel.White@dot.gov;</E> (202) 875-1029. If you have questions on viewing or submitting material to the docket, call Dockets Operations at (202) 366-9826. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Public Participation and Request for Comments</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Submitting Comments</HD> If you submit a comment, please include the docket number for this notice (FMCSA-2025-0193), indicate the specific section of this document to which your comment applies, and provide a reason for each suggestion or recommendation. You may submit your comments and material online or by fax, mail, or hand delivery, but please use only one of these means. FMCSA recommends that you include your name and a mailing address, an email address, or a phone number in the body of your document so FMCSA can contact you if there are questions regarding your submission. To submit your comment online, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FMCSA-2025-0193/document,</E> click on this notice, click “Comment,” and type your comment into the text box on the following screen. If you submit your comments by mail or hand delivery, submit them in an unbound format, no larger than 8 <FR>1/2</FR> by 11 inches, suitable for copying and electronic filing. FMCSA will consider all comments and material received during the comment period. <HD SOURCE="HD3">Confidential Business Information (CBI)</HD> CBI is commercial or financial information that is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner. Under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552), CBI is exempt from public disclosure. If your comments responsive to the notice contain commercial or financial information that is customarily treated as private, that you actually treat as private, and that is relevant or responsive to the notice, it is important that you clearly designate the submitted comments as CBI. Please mark each page of your submission that constitutes CBI as “PROPIN” to indicate it contains proprietary information. FMCSA will treat such marked submissions as confidential under the Freedom of Information Act, and they will not be placed in the public docket of the notice. Submissions containing CBI should be sent to Brian Dahlin, Chief, Regulatory Evaluation Division, Office of Policy, FMCSA, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001 or via email at <E T="03">brian.g.dahlin@dot.gov.</E> At this time, you need not send a duplicate hardcopy of your electronic CBI submissions to FMCSA headquarters. Any comments FMCSA receives not specifically designated as CBI will be placed in the public docket for this notice. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Viewing Comments and Documents</HD> To view any documents mentioned as being available in the docket, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FMCSA-2025-0193/document</E> and choose the document to review. To view comments, click this notice, then click “Browse Comments.” If you do not have access to the internet, you may view the docket online by visiting Dockets Operations on the ground floor of the DOT West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you, please call (202) 366-9317 or (202) 366-9826 before visiting Dockets Operations. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Privacy</HD> In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits comments from the public to better inform its processes. DOT posts these comments, including any personal information the commenter provides, to <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> as described in the system of records notice DOT/ALL 14 (Federal Docket Management System (FDMS)), which can be reviewed at <E T="03">https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/privacy/privacy-act-system-records-notices.</E> The comments are posted without edits and are searchable by the name of the submitter. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Legal Basis</HD> FMCSA has authority under 49 U.S.C. 31315(c) to conduct pilot programs. These programs are research studies where one or more temporary exemptions are granted to a person or class of persons subject to certain Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), to allow for the testing of innovative alternatives to those regulations. (49 U.S.C. 31315(c)(1); see also 49 CFR 381.400). FMCSA must publish in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> a detailed description of each pilot program, including the exemptions being considered, and provide such notice and an opportunity for public comment before the effective date of the program. The Agency is required to ensure that the safety measures in the pilot programs are designed to achieve a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety that would be achieved through compliance with the safety regulations. Pilot programs are limited to not more than 3 years from the starting date. (49 U.S.C. 31315(c)(2)). The requirements in 49 CFR part 395—Hours of Service of Drivers, are eligible for pilot program exemptions. (49 CFR 381.400(f)(8)). At the conclusion of each pilot program, FMCSA must submit a report to Congress concerning the findings, conclusions, and recommendations, including suggested amendments to laws and regulations that would enhance motor carrier, CMV, and driver safety, and improve compliance with the FMCSRs (49 U.S.C. 31315(e)). <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Background</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Earlier Proposals</HD> In December 2013, the American Trucking Associations, Inc., and the Minnesota Trucking Association submitted a joint proposal  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> for a “flexible sleeper-berth pilot program.” FMCSA's current proposal is based, in part, on that joint proposal for a pilot program. To reduce the potential for negative impacts on safety and ensure the collection of high-quality data, FMCSA also considered past research on sleep. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  A copy of the proposal is available in the docket for this notice. </FTNT> On June 6, 2017, FMCSA proposed a pilot program allowing temporary regulatory relief from the Agency's then-current sleeper berth regulations and permitting a variety of sleeper berth “splits” (82 FR 26232), as shown in the following table: <GPOTABLE COLS="5" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s50,15,15,13,14"> <TTITLE>Table 1—Examples of Sleeper Berth “Splits”</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Examples of Sleeper Berth “Splits”</CHED> <CHED H="2">Type of split</CHED> <CHED H="2"> Period I (sleeper berth) <ENT>Yes.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">“8/2”</ENT> <ENT>Yes.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">“7/3”</ENT> <ENT>Yes.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">“6/4”</ENT> <ENT>Yes.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">“5/5”</ENT> <ENT>Yes.</ENT> </ROW> ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 52k characters. 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