Court Schedules Arguments on FMCSA's New Hours of Service Rule on March 15, 2013
For-hire and private motor carriers face unique compliance and operations challenges that many other business or company functions do not encounter. Operating commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) for your business, or as your...more
Autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles are not a new concept. Companies such as Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Tesla have reshaped the automobile industry by producing and selling autonomous vehicles equipped with the newest AI...more
Public safety on the roadways is the chief objective of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). Some safety and operations teams will from time to time encounter unique circumstances where strict compliance can...more
Our economy depends on commercial trucking. In 2021, there were 13.86 million trucks registered, and they traveled a total of 327.48 billion miles in that year alone. In 2022, large trucks transported 72.6% of the total...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On December 26, 2023, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) announced they would be accepting comments from the public in response to multiple petitions requesting waivers from the...more
Beginning January 1, 2024, California intrastate motor carriers and drivers will be required to use an electronic logging device (“ELD”) as generally required by the federal ELD regulations adopted under 49 CFR § 395, Subpart...more
UPDATE: As of October 23, 2023, the FMCSA extended the comment period by 30 days to November 29, 2023. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking...more
Providers and commercial users of transportation services necessarily rely upon the predictability and uniformity afforded by national laws and regulations to support the efficient and reliable supply chains that are so...more
Welcome to The On-Ramp, the newsletter published by Venable's Autonomous and Connected Mobility team. The On-Ramp explores legal and policy developments in the world of autonomous vehicles, smart infrastructure, and emerging...more
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on Jan. 5, 2023, issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to implement financial security requirements on brokers and freight forwarders. The proposed changes to...more
On February 1, 2023, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) restarted the process it began in 2017, requesting comments from stakeholders in a supplemental advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (SANPRM)...more
In California, Wage Order 9-2001 applies to “all persons employed in the transportation industry,” including property-carrying commercial truck drivers. (Cal. Code Regs., Tit. 8, § 11090(1).) Under the order, an employee...more
This week, the Court addresses the retroactive effect of a preemption decision by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the constitutionality of California’s prohibition on an incumbent appearing on the ballot...more
In early 2021, the 9th Circuit upheld federal preemption of California’s meal and rest break laws for interstate motor carrier drivers, in the consolidated case of International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. Federal Motor...more
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has requested public comment on an application for exemption submitted by The Trucking Alliance that would allow trucking companies to use hair testing in addition to...more
The U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published a proposed draft Medical Examiner’s Handbook (MEH), including updates to the Medical Advisory Criteria, in the Federal...more
On June 10, 2022, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) issued a notice and request for comments in Docket No. 2022-134 to assist the agency in issuing guidance by November 15, 2022, in response to the...more
When lawsuits occur in the trucking industry, the potential for “nuclear verdicts” – verdicts where a jury award exceeds $10 million – is enormous. According to the most recent research on the matter from the American...more
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulates the hours of service for drivers of certain property-carrying commercial motor vehicles. The FMCSA’s regulations include meal and rest break rules that...more
Tractor trailers and other large commercial vehicles travel the highways and our local roads daily to deliver consumer goods around the country. With so many trucks, including 18-wheelers, semis, flatbeds, dump trucks, and...more
The Energy Marketers of America (“EMA”) announced in a November 29th publication that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) has extended the nationwide hours of service (“HOS”) COVID-19 waiver through...more
In Mowrer v. United States Department of Transportation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held that government immunity is waived under the FCRA, but also found that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety...more
H.R. 3684 of the 117th Congress passed the U.S. Senate on August 10 with a vote of 69-30. This bipartisan infrastructure legislation would make historic investments without increasing taxes, authorizing $550 billion in new...more
One of the most important stories in the transportation space over the last few years has been the explosive growth of last mile residential delivery. The global pandemic has only further fueled demand for this localized and...more
The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a “Clearinghouse Update” on May 27, 2021 reminding commercial motor vehicle drivers who are regulated by the FMCSA that they should...more