Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration October 14, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FMCSA announces its decision to renew exemptions of four individuals from the requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) that interstate commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers have ``no established medical history or clinical diagnosis of epilepsy or any other condition which is likely to cause loss of consciousness or any loss of ability to control a CMV.'' The exemptions enable these individuals who have had one or more seizures and are taking anti- seizure medication to continue to operate CMVs in interstate commerce.

FMCSA announces its decision to renew the exemptions from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for 125 individuals. FMCSA has statutory authority to exempt individuals from the vision requirement if the exemptions granted will not compromise safety. The Agency has concluded that granting these exemption renewals will provide a level of safety that is equivalent to or greater than the level of safety maintained without the exemptions for these commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, FMCSA announces its plan to submit the Information Collection Request (ICR) described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The information collection request (ICR) titled, ``Unified Registration System'' (78 FR 52608 dated August 23, 2013) required those entities that are subject to the FMCSA's licensing, registration and certification regulations to use a new application Form MCSA-1 titled, ``FMCSA Registration/Update(s).''

FMCSA announces its decision to renew exemptions of two individuals from the requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) that interstate commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers have ``no established medical history or clinical diagnosis of epilepsy or any other condition which is likely to cause loss of consciousness or any loss of ability to control a CMV.'' The exemptions enable these individuals who have had one or more seizures and are taking anti-seizure medication to continue to operate CMVs in interstate commerce.

FMCSA announces a joint meeting of its Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) and Medical Review Board (MRB) on Monday, October 24, 2016. Together, the MCSAC and MRB will receive an update on the Driver Health and Wellness Initiative, a non-regulatory public- private partnership of stakeholders to improve drivers' health, and a preview of its Web page. The MRB will report on its revised recommendations on obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) based on its evaluation of the comments from the joint Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) that the Agency issued with the Federal Railroad Administration. Additionally, the MCSAC will discuss how the implementation of these recommendations may impact current and future populations of drivers. On October 25, the MCSAC will meet separately to complete its review of the Agency's regulatory guidance and the MRB will meet to discuss how to incorporate recently issued warnings from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on narcotics and benzodiazepines. The meetings are open to the public for their entirety.

FMCSA announces its decision to renew exemptions of four individuals from the requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) that interstate commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers have ``no established medical history or clinical diagnosis of epilepsy or any other condition which is likely to cause loss of consciousness or any loss of ability to control a CMV.'' The exemptions enable these individuals who have had one or more seizures and are taking anti-seizure medication to continue to operate CMVs in interstate commerce.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration corrects an inadvertent error in the October 4, 2016 final rule ``General Technical, Organizational, Conforming, and Correcting Amendments to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.'' Due to an error, the rule unintentionally did not include the word ``and'' at the end of the next to last condition for a farm vehicle driver to take advantage of the farm vehicle driver exceptions to commercial driver's license standards and alcohol and drug testing requirements. Today's correction makes it clear that all four conditions in each farm vehicle driver exception must be met in order for the exception to be used.