FMCSA Issues Emergency Declaration for 33 States and DC After Severe Winter Storms

In February 2021, as severe winter storms knocked out power and strained fuel supplies across much of the country, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a regional emergency declaration covering 33 states and the District of Columbia.

Regional Emergency Declaration No. 2021-001, signed February 17, 2021 by the agency's Eastern, Midwestern, Southern and Western service center administrators, responded to storm damage and shortages of heating and other fuels.

Who was covered

The affected jurisdictions were Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The relief applied to carriers and drivers giving direct assistance to the emergency. That included hauling supplies, goods and equipment; heating fuels such as propane, natural gas and heating oil; and other fuel products including gasoline into the affected states, as well as moving people into and out of them.

What was waived and what was not

Qualifying operations were exempt from Parts 390 through 399 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, which include the hours-of-service limits. The declaration did not lift drug and alcohol testing, CDL requirements, insurance requirements, hazardous materials rules or size and weight limits. Carriers and drivers under an out-of-service order were not eligible.

Direct assistance ended once a truck was dispatched on freight unrelated to the storm relief. At that point, drivers could return empty to their terminal or normal reporting location without following the regulations, but a driver moving from relief work back to normal operations needed a 10-hour break once total time on relief work, or relief plus regular work, reached 14 hours.

The declaration took effect immediately and was set to run until the emergency ended or 11:59 p.m. Eastern on March 4, 2021, whichever came first.

Texas action

Texas had its own statewide emergency in place. The Texas Department of Public Safety said on February 18, 2021, that the governor's declaration provided hours-of-service relief for carriers giving direct assistance in the state, including deliveries of groceries, fuel and propane.

What it means for drivers and fleets

Fleets hauling propane, heating oil and other relief loads could keep trucks moving through the crisis without running into hours-of-service limits. However, the exemption covered only direct relief work, and fatigue rules came back once that work ended. Dispatchers needed to track which loads qualified and make sure drivers got the required 10-hour break before returning to regular freight.