Hours of service not working for everyone; companies seek exemptions
Lone Star Hazmat Response and Mainline Services seek targeted FMCSA hours-of-service relief for unpredictable response work, with separate scopes and 30-day comment periods.
Two specialized contractors have asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for exemptions from parts of the hours-of-service rules, arguing that fixed limits do not fit unpredictable response assignments. The applications are separate and would not create an industrywide exemption. Until FMCSA grants relief and states its conditions, the existing rules continue to apply to the companies and drivers involved.
Property-carrying commercial motor vehicle drivers generally may drive up to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty and may not drive beyond the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty. The requests focus on situations where work duration cannot be known when a driver is dispatched, but their proposed relief differs substantially.
Lone Star’s return-trip request
Lone Star Hazmat Response, based in Tyler, Texas, provides environmental cleanup and emergency-response services to government customers, including the Texas Department of Transportation and Drug Enforcement Administration. It says field-response drivers are sent only when they have enough available hours at dispatch. Because the duration of a response is unpredictable, however, a driver can exhaust available hours before the work ends.
The company asks to exceed applicable limits only to return to the normal reporting location or the driver’s residence after completing hazardous-material, environmental-cleanup or emergency-response duties. It estimates using the exemption four or five times per month. The docket is FMCSA-2026-1521. That narrow description matters: it is not a general request for extra driving time before or during ordinary freight service.
Mainline’s five-year proposal
Mainline Services performs railroad construction, maintenance-of-way and response work through seven divisions across the United States. Its application covers employees transporting equipment used to clear disabled or derailed trains or debris blocking tracks during unplanned events. Mainline seeks a five-year exemption from the 14-hour driving window and from the 60-hours-in-seven-days and 70-hours-in-eight-days limits. Its docket is FMCSA-2026-1717.
Mainline argues that the limits can delay restoration of rail service and the removal of public-safety hazards. It points to training, safety supervision and fatigue-management policies as safeguards. Drivers travel in convoys with escort vehicles at the front and rear, and supervisors conduct radio checks every 30 to 45 minutes requiring each driver to confirm status. FMCSA must evaluate whether the proposed alternative would maintain a level of safety equivalent to, or greater than, compliance with the rules.
Impact on operators
The filings illustrate why dispatchers cannot infer an exemption from the type or urgency of a job. Eligibility depends on the applicant, covered employees, vehicles, operations, regulatory provisions, dates and conditions in a final agency decision. A contractor working beside an exempt company is not automatically covered. Nor does filing an application suspend electronic logging, recordkeeping or hours limits.
If relief is granted, customers and prime contractors will need to distinguish exempt movements from ordinary work in dispatch records and contracts. Mixed operations create particular risk: a movement may begin within a covered response but later become routine repositioning. State enforcement personnel also need records that allow roadside verification of the exemption and its terms.
Recommended compliance steps
- Continue applying current HOS and electronic-logging requirements unless and until a final decision becomes effective.
- Monitor the correct docket and review comments, the agency’s safety analysis, duration, covered regulations and any reporting or accident-notification conditions.
- If relief is granted, issue drivers a copy of the decision and encode eligibility rules in dispatch systems; do not rely on a generic “emergency” label.
- Define the start and end of covered activity, the permitted return destination and how noncovered driving will be separated.
- Train dispatchers to check remaining hours before assignment and create a stop-work, relief-driver or lodging plan when a trip falls outside the exemption.
- Audit use frequency against the application’s representations and retain logs, convoy checks, fatigue assessments and exception approvals.
The public received 30 days to comment on each request. Operators with comparable work should use the dockets to provide operational and safety evidence, not assume the applications establish a precedent. The controlling document will be FMCSA’s final decision in each matter.