New Information Update

[Docket No. FMCSA–2004–19608]
RIN–2126–AB14

Hours of Service of Drivers

SUMMARY: FMCSA adopts as final the provisions of the Agency’s December 17, 2007, interim final rule concerning hours of service (HOS) for commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers. This final rule allows CMV drivers to continue to drive up to 11 hours within a 14-hour, non-extendable window from the start of the workday, following at least 10 consecutive hours off duty (11-hour rule). The rule also allows motor carriers and drivers to continue to restart calculations of the weekly on-duty limits after the driver has at least 34 consecutive hours off duty (34-hour restart).

The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) is a vital security measure that will ensure individuals who pose a threat do not gain unescorted access to secure areas of the nation's maritime transportation system.

Enrollment and issuance began at the Port of Wilmington, Delaware October 16, 2007 and will continue through calendar year 2008 and part of 2009. To obtain a TWIC, an individual must provide biographic and biometric information such as fingerprints, sit for a digital photograph and successfully pass a security threat assessment conducted by TSA.

The fee for TWIC is $132.50 and is valid for five years. Workers with current, comparable background checks will pay a reduced fee of $105.25. If workers are eligible to pay the lower price, their TWIC will expire 5 years from the date of the comparable credential (additional information is provided in the next question). The cost of a replacement TWIC, if the original is lost, stolen, or damaged, is $60. Complete TWIC information: http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/twic/index.shtm

For truckers who are delivering emergency fuel-related supplies in six southeastern states – from Louisiana eastward to the Carolinas – the federal exemption from hours-of-service rules has been extended to Oct. 15.

The HOS exemption is valid for drivers working in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.

The waiver applies to motor carriers and drivers transporting gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, propane, natural gas/CNG, and ethanol to address emergency needs arising from the hurricane disaster, such as fuel supply shortages.

Truckers providing relief in Arkansas are exempt from the rules until Oct. 11.

To see a copy of the exemption declaration, click http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/emergency/SSC-Ruban-fuel-shortage-extension-dec-100708.pdf

Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs

In summary:

1. This Final Rule makes it mandatory for laboratories to test all DOT specimens for specimen validity (i.e., adulterants and urine substitutes) and for laboratories to follow all Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) protocols for doing so. click: to view/download the Final Rule pdf

2. Observed collections will afford less privacy in order to guard against employee use of items designed specifically to beat the testing process.  

• Directly observed collections will continue to occur only when there is a specific reason to believe that an employee may be attempting, or have sufficient reason, to evade the testing process.
• Items such as prosthetic devices designed to carry clean urine will be checked for by observers with both male and female donors.  The observer will have the employee raise and lower clothing, and then put it back into place for the observed collection.  
• Observed collections will now be required, rather than optional, for all return-to-duty and follow-up drug testing.

3. In an effort to thwart those who would manufacturer products designed to adulterate specimens, the Final Rule will no longer have easy-to-follow tables and charts outlining the adulterants for which laboratories are testing and the scientific cutoff levels at which laboratories are testing them.

4. Definitions in the Final Rule have been changed to harmonize with the HHS.

5. During an invalid result Medical Review Officer (MRO) review, an employee admission of adulterating or substituting a specimen is now a refusal to test. 

6. Pursuant to MRO requests, the Final Rule will close the potentially endless loop on invalid specimen results; and employees requiring negative results [for example, pre-employment tests], when they have medical reasons for providing invalid results, will be able to obtain them through medical evaluations to rule out signs and symptoms of drug use.

7. The Final Rule will also streamline and simplify the potential myriad of complicated laboratory-confirmed and MRO-verified drug test results.

8. The Final Rule requires drug testing laboratories to report to DOT semi-annual statistical summaries on all of their DOT testing.

9.  The Final Rule effective date is August 25, 2008.

The employer and SAP Guidelines can be found on the FMCSA web site at www.dot.gov/ost/dapc/employer.html and www.dot.gov/ost/dapc/sap.html respectively.


 

The USDOT has passed an interim final rule, effective June 13, 2008, amending section 40.331 of the FMCSR (drug and alcohol testing procedures).  This amendment authorize employers to disclose to State commercial driver licensing (CDL) authorities the drug and alcohol violations of employees who hold CDLs and operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs), when a State law requires such reporting. This amendment also permits third-party administrators (TPAs) to provide the same information to State CDL licensing authorities where State law requires the TPAs to do so for owner-operator CMV drivers with CDLs.

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-13377.htm    

Public Act 131 of 2008

This Act amends the Michigan Vehicle Code to delete the following: -- Provisions for securing logs or tubular products being transported on a highway.

This Act deletes all of the provisions previously in state law and requires motor carriers transporting logs to comply with Federal cargo securement standards found in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations part 393.100-136. (House Bill 5695) Public Act 131