Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration December 7, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FMCSA announces its decision to grant Daimler Trucks North America's (Daimler) application for an exemption to allow a Daimler employee to drive commercial motor vehicles (CMV) in the United States without having a commercial driver's license (CDL) issued by one of the States. The driver, Michael Seitter, will test-drive Daimler vehicles on U.S. roads to better understand product requirements for these vehicles in ``real world'' environments and verify results. He holds a valid German commercial license but lacks the U.S. residency necessary to obtain a CDL issued by one of the States. FMCSA believes that the process for obtaining a German commercial license is comparable to or as effective as the U.S. CDL requirements and ensures that this driver will likely achieve a level of safety that is equivalent to or greater than the level of safety that would be obtained in the absence of the exemption.

FMCSA denies an exemption application from the Entertainer Motorcoach Council (EMC) to allow its members to operate certain vehicles that do not meet the emergency exit requirements in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR). The FMCSRs require buses with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of more than 10,000 pounds, manufactured on or after September 1, 1994, to meet the emergency exit requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 217, ``Bus Emergency exits and window retention and release,'' in effect on the date of manufacture. FMVSS No. 217 requires side exits and at least one rear exit, but when the bus configuration precludes installation of an accessible rear exit, a roof exit is required in the rear half of the bus to provide a means of egress when the bus is overturned on either side. While EMC contends that ``Entertainer Coaches'' that do not have a rear or roof exit have emergency exit windows that open manually at the rear sides of the vehicle that provide openings large enough to admit unobstructed passage, it did not provide evidence to enable the Agency to conclude that motor carriers operating such vehicles could achieve a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety that would be obtained by complying with the regulation.