The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently gave notice that it will consider petitions to undo the federal preemption of truck driver meal and rest break rules in California and Washington State.
The agency determined in 2018 and 2020 that those state-level rules were more stringent than the federal rest break regulations and that they met each of the three criteria for preemption under federal law:
- The state law or regulation has no safety benefit;
- The state law or regulation is incompatible with the federal regulation; or
- Enforcement of the state law or regulation would cause an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce.
The California and Washington State preemption rulings have withstood legal challenge. Nonetheless, FMCSA now takes the unprecedented step of accepting waiver petitions to set aside those rulings. FMCSA advises prospective petitioners that they need not argue that the preemption decisions under the prior administration were erroneous. Instead, FMCSA requests that petitioners address these three issues:
1. “Whether and to what extent enforcement of a state’s meal and rest break laws with respect to intrastate property-carrying and passenger-carrying CMV [commercial motor vehicle] drivers has impacted the health and safety of drivers.
2. “Whether enforcement of state meal and rest break laws as applied to interstate property-carrying or passenger-carrying CMV drivers will exacerbate the existing truck parking shortages and result in more trucks parking on the side of the road, whether any such effect will burden interstate commerce or create additional dangers to drivers and the public, and whether the applicant intends to take any actions to mitigate or address any such effect; and
3. “Whether enforcement of a state’s meal and rest break laws as applied to interstate property-carrying or passenger-carrying CMV drivers will dissuade carriers from operating in that state, whether any such effect will weaken the resiliency of the national supply chain, and whether the applicant intends to take any actions to mitigate or address any such effect.”
FMCSA did not mention the prospective status of 19 other states with varying meal and rest break rules on the books. If one of the tests for preemption is whether a state law or rule creates an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce, allowing 21 state rules with differing provisions would appear to be worthy of note.
FMCSA says that petitions for waiver may be submitted at any time but specifically requests that those related to the California and Washington State meal and rest break preemption decisions be submitted by Nov. 13, 2023.
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