Fuel truck drivers across the country can now spend up to 16 hours behind the wheel in a single day, two hours longer than federal rules normally allow, under a 90-day waiver announced by the Trump administration. The move comes as U.S. diesel prices have climbed to levels not seen before, squeezing everyone from long-haul truckers to farmers trying to bring in the harvest.
According to Reuters, existing hours-of-service rules cap fuel truck drivers at 14 hours within a 24-hour window; the new waiver pushes that limit to 16 hours. The relaxed rule is meant to mitigate impacts on fuel costs and availability for transport providers, agricultural harvesting operations and the general public, the outlet reports. Motor carriers with conditional safety ratings are excluded from the waiver, and drivers are still required to take their mandated rest breaks.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy framed the move as a response to looming supply strain, saying short-term supply-chain disruptions could delay gasoline and diesel shipments. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration took the action in anticipation of the need for greater hours-of-service flexibility, and had anticipated increased demand for gasoline and diesel fuels heading into late summer and fall, the same report notes.
Diesel Prices Hit Record Territory
The backdrop for the waiver is a diesel market under serious pressure. The U.S. average diesel price reached a record $6.23 a gallon on September 14. Other outlets have tracked the run-up with slightly different snapshots: the New York Times reported the average price climbing to $6.23 by Monday morning, up about 65 percent since the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran began on February 28, while other reports have offered different snapshots. The global price of oil, the raw material behind diesel and gasoline, is up roughly 50 percent, per the New York Times.
Several overlapping disruptions have been squeezing fuel supply. Ukraine's attacks on Russian refineries and the U.S.-Israel war on Iran have both strained output, and half of Russia's six top diesel-producing refineries were forced to significantly cut back or completely halt output in September because of drone-strike damage, according to Reuters. Compounding the problem, the Russian government has extended until September 30 a ban preventing direct producers from exporting diesel, marine fuel and gasoil, as reported by finance.yahoo.com, which also notes that U.S. diesel inventories have fallen to their lowest seasonal level on record.
Tight Inventories Meet Harvest-Season Demand
The inventory picture has been deteriorating for weeks. U.S. distillate fuel stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, sat at just 103.4 million barrels for the week ending August 21, a record low for that time of year, according to EIA data cited by agweb.com. Global diesel supplies are expected to remain tight, with a lack of spare refining capacity, Russia's export ban and looming peak winter demand all adding pressure. Diesel margins are expected to stay elevated and volatile into early next year, per applevalleynewsnow.com.
How Emergency Hours-of-Service Waivers Normally Work
Waivers like this one aren't unprecedented. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration can issue emergency declarations that trigger the temporary suspension of certain federal safety regulations, including hours-of-service rules, for motor carriers and drivers responding to natural disasters and emergencies such as wildfires, hurricanes and winter storms. Similar emergency orders can waive certain service requirements for commercial vehicle drivers responding to emergencies.
Under the agency's standard summary of hours-of-service regulations, drivers must take their mandated rest breaks — a baseline the new waiver temporarily stretches for fuel haulers. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's latest move aims to respond to the global supply disruptions rattling diesel markets, giving fuel carriers more flexibility to keep gasoline and diesel moving as short-term supply-chain disruptions threaten to affect freight deliveries nationwide.
