WASHINGTON, D.C. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is moving its long-planned Split Duty Period pilot program closer to a full 2027 rollout, filing new federal paperwork Monday that details how 256 commercial drivers would be studied while operating under an exemption that can effectively pause their 14-hour driving window for as much as three hours.
The notice was filed for public inspection at the Federal Register on October 5 and is scheduled for publication October 6. It does not change the hours-of-service rules for truck drivers generally. Instead, FMCSA is seeking public comment on the information collection it plans to use during a controlled research study of drivers operating both under current HOS rules and under the proposed split-duty exemption.
Under the study, qualifying drivers could extend the 14-hour driving window by as much as three hours using certain non-driving time, including off-duty time, sleeper-berth time and, importantly, on-duty/not-driving time spent at a cargo pickup or delivery location. FMCSA says the purpose is to determine whether that flexibility can improve drivers’ working conditions and quality of life while producing safety performance equivalent to or better than operations under existing HOS regulations.
That on-duty provision is particularly significant for drivers who lose usable hours waiting at shippers and receivers. FMCSA specifically identified lengthy detention time as a real-world situation in which drivers may benefit from the ability to stop the 14-hour clock. The agency noted that an earlier pilot concept proposed in 2020 would not have allowed on-duty time to count toward the pause, even when that time was spent waiting to load or unload.
The current federal rule generally requires a property-carrying driver to complete all driving within 14 consecutive hours after coming on duty following 10 consecutive hours off duty. Ordinary off-duty periods during that window do not stop the clock unless another specific HOS provision applies.
FMCSA’s Split Duty Period program has previously described the experimental pause as lasting between 30 minutes and three hours. The agency says the flexibility could allow participating drivers to wait out congestion or severe weather, account for detention time or take additional rest without automatically sacrificing the same amount of their available 14-hour window.
The newly filed study plan calls for 256 commercial drivers to participate for 16 weeks each. FMCSA would collect considerably more than electronic-log information. The research is expected to include drivers’ records of duty status, pre- and post-study surveys, psychomotor vigilance testing, subjective sleepiness ratings, wrist-worn actigraphy devices used to assess rest and activity, and data from non-intrusive vehicle telematics equipment. FMCSA says the information will be used to compare fatigue and driving performance for the same drivers while operating under regular HOS rules and under the split-duty exemption.
Participation would be restricted based on safety history. Carriers would need applicable interstate authority and registration, required financial responsibility, no “Unsatisfactory” safety rating and no FMCSA enforcement actions within the preceding three years. They also could not have driver or vehicle out-of-service rates above the national average, and high- or moderate-risk carriers would be excluded. Unpaid federal civil penalties could also be grounds for exclusion.
Drivers would face their own screening requirements. Participants must hold a valid CDL and medical certificate and work for an approved carrier or qualify as an owner-operator. A driver identified in FMCSA’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse would not be eligible even if that driver has completed the return-to-duty process, according to the notice. Drivers would also be excluded if, during the previous two years, their license had been suspended, revoked or canceled, or if they had been disqualified following one of the offenses listed under 49 CFR §383.51.
FMCSA has already conducted a much smaller pre-test of the concept. Nine drivers from three motor carriers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio participated in a six-week Split Duty Period test between May 18 and July 17, 2026. The agency said in August that it was reviewing those results before expanding the program in 2027. The full study is expected to include 256 Split Duty Period participants, while a separate Flexible Sleeper Berth pilot is also expected to involve 256 drivers.
The agency has also said it intends to watch the shipper and receiver side of the equation. FMCSA said it will monitor shippers during the pilot to determine whether the added scheduling flexibility leads to increased detention or exploitation of drivers, an issue that has followed previous proposals to stop the 14-hour clock. When FMCSA considered similar flexibility in its 2019 HOS rulemaking, commenters warned that carriers, shippers or receivers could pressure drivers to use the pause for operational purposes rather than for the driver’s own rest or scheduling needs. FMCSA ultimately left the provision out of its 2020 final HOS rule.
Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy described the broader effort when the two HOS pilots were launched in September 2025, saying, “These pilot programs will help identify real solutions for America’s drivers without compromising safety.” Duffy said the department wanted to explore data-driven approaches that could give drivers greater control over their schedules while maintaining roadway safety.
The distinction between a pilot and a nationwide HOS change remains critical. FMCSA has not authorized every commercial driver to stop the 14-hour clock for three hours, and Monday’s filing is not a final rule changing 49 CFR Part 395. The exemption would apply only to approved participants operating under the study conditions. Any eventual nationwide regulatory change would require additional federal action and would have to be supported by the evidence developed through the research.
Monday’s filing, Docket FMCSA-2026-2081, is an information-collection notice under the Paperwork Reduction Act. FMCSA plans to submit the study’s information collection to the Office of Management and Budget for approval and is requesting public comments for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register.
For drivers who regularly watch their available hours disappear while sitting at a dock, however, the study goes directly at one of trucking’s oldest HOS frustrations. Rather than immediately rewriting the rule, FMCSA is now preparing to put the concept into the field with hundreds of drivers and measure whether stopping the clock during qualifying non-driving periods actually improves fatigue, safety and working conditions.
