Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration March 28, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FMCSA announces receipt of applications from 22 individuals for exemption from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. They are unable to meet the vision requirement in one eye for various reasons. The exemptions will enable these individuals to operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce without meeting the prescribed vision requirement in one eye. If granted, the exemptions would enable these individuals to qualify as drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce.

FMCSA announces its denial of the application of ATA for an exemption from the 14-hour provision of the Agency's hours-of-service regulations to enable certain drivers to exclude waiting time from their calculations of on-duty time. Currently, only specially trained drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) that are specially constructed to service oil and natural gas extraction sites may employ this provision. ATA proposed that FMCSA issue a limited 2-year exemption to permit exclusion of such waiting time by drivers of CMVs who are exclusively engaged in servicing oil and natural gas extraction sites and have the opportunity to obtain rest while waiting at such sites. FMCSA concluded that ATA did not demonstrate how the CMV operations under such an exemption would achieve a level of safety equivalent to or greater than the level of safety obtained in the absence of the exemption.