Ag Groups Seek Delay for New Rules Affecting Livestock Hauling

A five-year exemption from certain Hours of Service (HOS) requirements for livestock haulers, along with flexibility related to new fatigue-management practices, was requested in a petition submitted by US farm and commodity organizations to the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).Current rules limit haulers to a drive time to 11 hours daily and limit total on-duty hours to 14. The groups asked FMCSA to instead allow haulers to drive up to 15 hours with a 16-hour on-duty period – following a 10-hour consecutive rest period. The petition proposes that any livestock hauler seeking operate under the extended drive time be required to complete pre-trip planning and increased fatigue-management training.“We are concerned that the 11- and 14-hour rules were not drafted with livestock haulers in mind and thus do not accommodate the unique character of their loads and nature of their trips,” the organizations wrote.They argued the current rules, as written, “Place the well-being of livestock at risk during transport and impose significant burdens on livestock haulers, particularly in rural communities across the country.”The petition was signed by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), Livestock Marketing Association (LMA), American Beekeeping Federation (ABF), American Honey Producers Association (AHPA) and the National Aquaculture Association (NAA).