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The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued an extended and expanded national emergency declaration to provide hours-of-service (HOS) regulatory relief to commercial vehicle drivers transporting vaccines and emergency relief in response to the nationwide coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency.

The declaration has been extended to February 28, 2021.

FMCSA’s expanded and extended declaration provides for regulatory relief for commercial motor vehicle operations providing direct assistance supporting emergency relief efforts intended to meet immediate needs for:

• Vaccines, constituent products, and medical supplies and equipment including ancillary supplies/kits for the administration of vaccines, related to the prevention of COVID-19.
• Medical supplies and equipment related to the testing, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19.
• Supplies and equipment necessary for community safety, sanitation, and prevention of community transmission of COVID-19 such as masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, soap, and disinfectants.
• Livestock and livestock feed.  Livestock includes fish, crawfish and shellfish.
• Food, paper products, and other groceries for emergency restocking of distribution centers or stores.

The declaration stipulates that direct assistance does not include routine commercial deliveries, including mixed loads with a nominal quantity of qualifying emergency relief added to obtain the benefits of the emergency declaration. To ensure continued safety on the nation’s roadways, the emergency declaration stipulates that when a driver is moving from emergency relief efforts to normal operations, the driver must receive a minimum of 10 hours off duty if the total time a driver operates conducting emergency relief efforts, or a combination of emergency relief and normal operations, equals 14 hours.

Long haul transporters of livestock and livestock feed should download, read the declaration as there are restrictions to its application, and carry a print copy. This is the third extension of the declaration. The declaration can be found here.