Regulatory Update Refresher

Truck Inspections

Time for some spring cleaning and that includes checking in on trucking regulations that affect your daily life. The trucking industry in the midst of further changes to the restart rules and other new items:

Restart Rules Suspended Until at least September 30

The controversial 34-hour restart regulations went on hiatus in December 2014. Now, we are all waiting on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to finish up a report and make new recommendations.

Officials finally agreed that the strict rules were too problematic: a 34-hour restart with two nights of sleep in the 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. time block, with 168 hours from the start of one restart period to the next. FMCSA is supposed to have new recommendations announced by September 30. Stay tuned for updates.

No passengers? No defects? No inspection report

In the past, drivers filled out reports for every inspection even with no defects found. Now, you can skip the report for non-passenger loads if the inspection doesn't turn up any problems.

Truckers may want to continue filling out the report for all inspections, even though new regulations will not penalize you for skipping over the no-defects reports. It creates a good paper trail and the reports are still required for trucks that enter Canada.

Update Your MCS-150!

Make sure to keep your USDOT number active. Update every two years not just when company information changes. You can renew online for free here.

The USDOT number tells you when to renew:

• Look at the second to last number. Even numbers renew in even years, odd numbers renew in odd years
• The last number tells you the month to renew

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