Title: Honest Operators Undertake Road Safety Act
Policy area: Transportation and Public Works

Summary:
Honest Operators Undertake Road Safety Act or the HOURS Act
This bill amends the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 with respect to commercial motor vehicle safety regulations involving the transportation of agricultural commodities and farm supplies.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) shall issue or revise regulations to ensure that a driver is exempt from requirements with respect to a driver's record of duty status and supporting documents, if (1) the driver meets certain requirements, including that he or she operates within a 150 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location and, if driving a property-carrying commercial motor vehicle, returns to the work reporting location and is released from work within 14 consecutive hours; and (2) the motor carrier that employs the driver maintains and retains for a period of six months accurate and true records showing certain information, including the time the driver reports for duty each day and the total number of hours the driver is on duty each day.
DOT shall issue or revise regulations to ensure that a driver or motor carrier subject to the use of an electronic logging device, hall only be required, for purposes of federal hours of service requirements, to obtain and retain supporting documentation regarding the start and end times of each applicable daily on-duty period.
The public participation requirements shall not apply to a rulemaking regarding hours of service requirements as they relate to sleeper berths for property-carrying commercial motor vehicle drivers.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6178 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6178

To amend the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 with respect 
  to exemptions from certain motor carrier regulations, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 21, 2018

 Mr. Crawford (for himself, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, and Mr. Westerman) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                   Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 with respect 
  to exemptions from certain motor carrier regulations, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Honest Operators Undertake Road 
Safety Act'' or the ``HOURS Act''.

SEC. 2. TRANSPORTATION OF AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES AND FARM SUPPLIES.

    Section 229 of the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 (49 
U.S.C. 31136 note) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ``during planting and 
        harvest periods, as determined by each State,''; and
            (2) in subsection (e)(8), by striking ``during the planting 
        and harvesting seasons within each State, as determined by the 
        State, and livestock feed at any time of the year'' and 
        inserting ``and livestock feed''.

SEC. 3. SHORT-HAUL OPERATIONS.

    Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of Transportation shall issue or revise regulations to 
ensure that a driver is exempt from the requirements of sections 395.8 
and 395.11 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor 
regulations), if--
            (1) the driver operates within a 150 air-mile radius of the 
        normal work reporting location;
            (2) the driver (except a driver-salesperson)--
                    (A) if driving a property-carrying commercial motor 
                vehicle, returns to the work reporting location and is 
                released from work within 14 consecutive hours; and
                    (B) if driving a passenger-carrying commercial 
                motor vehicle, returns to the work reporting location 
                and is released from work within 12 consecutive hours;
            (3) the driver--
                    (A) if driving a property-carrying commercial motor 
                vehicle, has at least 10 consecutive hours off duty 
                separating each 14 hours on duty; and
                    (B) if driving a passenger-carrying commercial 
                motor vehicle, has at least 8 consecutive hours off 
                duty separating each 12 hours on duty;
            (4) the driver--
                    (A) if driving a property-carrying commercial motor 
                vehicle, does not exceed the maximum driving time 
                specified in section 395.3(a)(3) of title 49, Code of 
                Federal Regulations (or any successor regulation), 
                following 10 consecutive hours off duty; and
                    (B) if driving a passenger-carrying commercial 
                motor vehicle, does not exceed 10 hours maximum driving 
                time following 8 consecutive hours off duty; and
            (5) the motor carrier that employs the driver maintains and 
        retains for a period of 6 months accurate and true time records 
        showing the--
                    (A) time the driver reports for duty each day;
                    (B) total number of hours the driver is on duty 
                each day;
                    (C) time the driver is released from duty each day; 
                and
                    (D) total time for the preceding 7 days in 
                accordance with section 395.8(j)(2) of title 49, Code 
                of Federal Regulations (or any successor regulation), 
                for drivers used for the first time or intermittently.

SEC. 4. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS.

    Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of Transportation shall issue or revise regulations to 
ensure that a driver or motor carrier subject to the use of an 
electronic logging device pursuant to section 31137 of title 49, United 
States Code, shall only be required, for purposes of Federal hours of 
service requirements, to obtain and retain supporting documentation 
regarding the start and end times of each applicable daily on-duty 
period.

SEC. 5. SLEEPER BERTHS.

    Before the date that is 2 years after the date of enactment of this 
Act, the requirements under section 31136(g)(1) of title 49, United 
States Code, shall not apply to a rulemaking regarding hours of service 
requirements as they relate to sleeper berths for property-carrying 
commercial motor vehicle drivers.
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