As you know, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a national Emergency Declaration for Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMVs) delivering relief in response to the COVID-19 outbreak on March 13th, 2020.
I have already addressed 20 most frequently asked questions with regards to the Emergency Declaration and how it affects truck driver’s Hours of Service in this FAQ blog.
Below, are the updates on the details of the Declaration as of March 20, 2020.
FMCSA has created a link on their website, specific to FAQs, related to the Emergency Declaration.
For your convenience, I have included a link to this FAQs here.
FMCSA has also expanded the emergency relief exemptions that provide regulatory relaxation for certain motor carriers and passenger-carrying drivers who are assisting with the COVID-19 relief efforts.
For your benefit, I wanted to highlight the additional items that are included in this expanded emergency relief exemption list that were not found in the original emergency relief exemption posted by FMCSA.
- Food, paper products, and other groceries for emergency restocking of distribution centers or stores
- Immediate precursor raw materials — such as paper, plastic, or alcohol — that are required and to be used for the manufacture of essential items
- Fuel
FMSCA also updated what was considered not to be direct assistance. In this case, direct assistance does not include routine commercial deliveries. Direct assistance also does not include transportation of mixed loads with a nominal quantity of qualifying emergency relief added to obtain the benefits of the emergency.
Link to the FMCSA expanded relief exemptions here.
