FMCSA Proposes Restoring 30 Days of Automatic Hours-of-Service Relief After Emergency Declarations

In January 2026, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration proposed giving truckers who haul relief supplies after a disaster a longer automatic window of hours-of-service relief. The notice of proposed rulemaking, published in the Federal Register on January 9, 2026, would lengthen the automatic exemption that kicks in after a regional emergency declaration from 14 days back to 30 days.

How the current rule works

The change would partly reverse a final rule FMCSA published in October 2023 that tightened the emergency exemption provisions in 49 CFR 390.23 and 390.25. That rule cut the automatic relief following a regional declaration, issued by a governor, a governor's authorized representative or FMCSA, from 30 days to 14 days. It also narrowed the relief so it covers only the hours-of-service limits in sections 395.3 and 395.5, rather than all of parts 390 through 399, and it limited the relief to carriers and drivers giving direct assistance to the emergency.

The January proposal touches only the time limit. The section-by-section analysis says the single change is replacing "14" with "30" in section 390.23(b). The narrower scope and the direct-assistance requirement would stay. The exemption also could not outlast the emergency itself: if a governor issues a 14-day declaration, or cancels a 30-day declaration after 20 days, the relief ends with it.

Why FMCSA changed course

FMCSA said it received seven petitions for reconsideration of the 2023 rule. The petitioners included the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance; the governors of North Dakota, Idaho and South Dakota; the Montana Department of Transportation; a subcommittee of the Western Association of State Highway Transportation Officials; and the National Propane Gas Association and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which filed jointly. Six of the petitions argued that 14 days was too short.

The agency agreed. It said that since the 2023 rule took effect, decisions on extension requests sometimes could not be issued until close to the moment the automatic relief ran out, leaving responders unsure whether it would continue. It pointed to the 2024 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, wildfires in the western United States and the back-to-back hurricanes that hit North Carolina in fall 2024 as emergencies where relief ran past 14 days. The first Key Bridge exemption, FMCSA noted, was extended four times.

The agency wrote that delays in emergency response, "while rare," are "unacceptable because it creates a risk of delays in the provision of emergency assistance."

FMCSA estimated the change could save carriers up to about $1,011 a year in paperwork for extension requests, and the federal government up to about $1,589 a year in review time. It asked states in particular how often their declarations have needed extensions beyond 14 days and what preparing those requests costs them. Comments are due March 10, 2026, under docket FMCSA-2025-0124.

What it means for drivers and fleets

Nothing changes until FMCSA issues a final rule. If it is adopted, carriers that send trucks into hurricane, wildfire or infrastructure-failure zones would get a month of hours-of-service relief under a regional declaration without waiting on an extension, which should make it easier to plan multi-week relief runs.

The limits would still apply. The relief would cover only drivers providing direct assistance to the emergency, and only the driving-time rules in sections 395.3 and 395.5. Other safety rules, including drug and alcohol testing and vehicle maintenance, would still apply. Fleets that run disaster-response freight should keep copies of the governing declaration and document that each load qualifies as direct assistance.