The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld in part and vacated in part the updated maximum driving hours rules promulgated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which became effective on July 1, 2013. The court struck down a provision requiring a 30-minute break for short-haul drivers.
In an August 2, 2013 opinion the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld in part and vacated in part the 2011 update to the Hours of Service (HOS) rules issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which became effective on July 1, 2013.
In American Trucking Assns. v. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration the court addressed several challenges to the rules brought by the American Trucking Association (ATA), various public interest organizations and individual truck drivers. The court denied the challenges to all but one aspect of the updated rules, vacating a provision that bars truckers from driving more than eight hours without taking an off-duty break of at least 30 minutes (the 30-minute rule) as it applies to short-haul truckers.
The FMCSA has historically distinguished between long-haul and short-haul trucking operations. However, the updated HOS rules impose the 30-minute rule on both long-haul and short-haul truckers. The ATA argued, and the court agreed, that the FMCSA failed to provide more than a conclusory explanation of its decision to apply the 30-minute rule to short-haul trucking operations. The court found the imposition of the 30-minute rule to short-haul truckers arbitrary because it could find no rational connection between the facts and the FMCSA's decision to impose the rule.