The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has published its final rule updating the Hours of Service regulations. Part of the rule will be beneficial for agriculture according to National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Executive Director of Government Affairs Allison Rivera. She says her group had asked for different rest period rules for drivers.

She says FMCSA made some improvements to the adverse driving conditions window which allows drivers to pause if they come upon an accident and then continue without being penalized on hours of service rules.

Rivera says DOT and FMCSA officials keep pushing the livestock industry to use two drivers when hauling but that that’s not completely feasible given the current shortage of truck drivers.

Rivera says they’re working with FMCSA to see if they can get an extension on when the Electronic Logging Device rules go into effect. Currently that’s set to go into effect September 30 of this year. She says they’ll try to get it extended to September 30 of 2021.