The number of essential movements at various stages of the food supply chain will be adversely affected by the changes contained in the new proposed hours of service regulation. Congress clearly made the determination that certain types of transportation should be exempted due to the type of transportation being conducted. The current hours of service proposal does not address any Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration findings supporting the modification or removal of the agricultural exemption. It would appear that the requirements of Public law 104-59 regarding agricultural exemptions were not considered in the rulemaking process for the proposed hours of service regulation. Considering these significant factors, the Agricultural Transporters Conference strongly recommends that the proposed application of Section 395.109 needs further clarification regarding statutory requirements and more thorough investigation, study, and review before the implementation of the proposed regulation.
Clarification is needed in order to understand the impact on agricultural transporters.
Thank you for your consideration of these comments.