Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration August 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FMCSA announces a meeting of the MCSAC.

FMCSA announces its decision to renew exemptions for four individuals from the hearing requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) for interstate commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers. The exemptions enable these hard of hearing and deaf individuals to continue to operate CMVs in interstate commerce.

FMCSA announces receipt of applications from five individuals for an exemption from the prohibition in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) against persons with a clinical diagnosis of epilepsy or any other condition that is likely to cause a loss of consciousness or any loss of ability to control a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) to drive in interstate commerce. If granted, the exemptions would enable these individuals who have had one or more seizures and are taking anti-seizure medication to operate CMVs in interstate commerce.

FMCSA announces its decision to grant Transco, Inc.'s (Transco) request for exemption from the 30-minute rest break provision of the Agency's hours-of-service (HOS) regulations for commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers. The exemption will enable Transco's drivers to comply with the 30-minute break requirement while performing on-duty not-driving tasks. The exemption applies to all Transco drivers in its grocery division who make wholesale deliveries to grocery and convenience stores.

FMCSA announces a public meeting to discuss the technical specifications in Appendix A to Subpart B of part 395, Functional Specifications for All Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs), as published in the ``Electronic Logging Devices and Hours of Service Supporting Documents'' final rule (ELD Rule). This meeting will be a forum for discussion of the minimum requirements for ELDs and is being held to help manufacturers produce ELDs that will comply with the ELD Rule.

FMCSA proposes amendments to the Agency's financial assistance programs resulting from the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, including amendments based on the funding formula recommendations derived from the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) Formula Working Group (working group). This proposal would reorganize the Agency's regulations to create a standalone subpart for the High Priority Program. It would also include other programmatic changes to reduce redundancies, require the use of 3-year MCSAP commercial vehicle safety plans (CVSPs), and align the financial assistance programs with FMCSA's current enforcement and compliance programs.

FMCSA amends its May 27, 2015, final rule on Lease and Interchange of Vehicles; Motor Carriers of Passengers (2015 final rule) in response to petitions for rulemaking. This final rule narrows the applicability of the 2015 final rule by excluding certain contracts and other agreements between motor carriers of passengers that have active passenger carrier operating authority registrations with FMCSA from the definition of lease and the associated regulatory requirements. For passenger carriers that remain subject to the leasing and interchange requirements, FMCSA returns the bus marking requirement to its July 1, 2015, state with slight modifications to add references to leased vehicles; revises the exception for the delayed writing of a lease during certain emergencies; and removes the 24-hour lease notification requirement.

On July 27, 2017, FMCSA announced a crash preventability demonstration program to evaluate the preventability of eight categories of crashes through submissions of Requests for Data Review to its national data correction system known as DataQs. After 18 months of operating the program, FMCSA has decided to operate a crash preventability determination program, using a streamlined process, and proposes to modify the Safety Measurement System to remove crashes found to be not preventable from the prioritization algorithm and noting the not preventable determinations in the Pre-Employment Screening Program. In addition, FMCSA proposes to consolidate two of the original crash types in the demonstration program and start reviewing additional crash types to determine if crashes in the additional categories are predominantly not preventable. FMCSA seeks comments on its implementation of these changes and on the new crash types.

FMCSA announces its decision to renew exemptions for 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 exemptions for 173 individuals from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) for interstate commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers. The exemptions enable these individuals to continue to operate CMVs in interstate commerce without meeting the vision requirement in one eye.