FMCSA has taken another step toward a pilot program that could eventually loosen split sleeper berth rules. A Federal Register notice published Oct. 7 opened the information collection tied to the study, and the agency is accepting comments through Dec. 7.
The pilot will give 256 volunteer drivers 16 weeks of flexibility to spend their 10 required off-duty hours in the sleeper berth as they choose. Current rules allow only 10 consecutive hours off or a split built around at least 7 consecutive sleeper berth hours plus a second period of at least 2 hours, which in practice allows any split between and including 7-3 and 8-2. The study will test whether 5-5 or 6-4 splits, made possible by dropping the minimum sleeper berth period from seven hours to five, can hit the same safety bar.
A rule change is not around the corner. The driving phase runs 16 weeks, but FMCSA pegs the full pilot at 34 to 36 months. Chris Eckhart, a partner with the trucking-focused Scopelitis law firm, said the Oct. 7 notice “requests comments on the information collection the FMCSA will seek through the pilot” and, in his view, breaks no new ground on the agency’s plans. Participation also has guardrails: drivers with an unsatisfactory FMCSA rating, an out-of-service rate above the national average, or any agency enforcement action in the past three years are excluded.
The concept has been kicking around for years. FMCSA held three listening sessions in 2010, and the American Trucking Associations teamed with the Minnesota Trucking Association in a 2013 joint submission to FMCSA for a flexible sleeper berth pilot. According to the agency’s notice, splits beyond 7-3 were left out of the 2011 Hours of Service rule so the issue could be studied in more depth. A 2015 review cited by FMCSA suggested segmented sleep can be restorative and does not drag on daytime performance compared to a single block of the same length. FMCSA’s notice ties the pilot to the Trump administration’s April 2025 executive order on trucking, which set a general goal for the Transportation Secretary to find and carry out actions that improve truck drivers’ working conditions.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) backs the idea, with strings attached. Executive vice president Lewie Pugh said the group is “always in favor of more hours of service flexibility for the driver,” but only if drivers control the extra time. His concern: a carrier or shipper spotting extra hours and telling a driver to burn them sitting at a dock waiting to get loaded. That cuts both ways for brokers and shippers. More flexible splits could eventually give drivers room to work around congested docks and odd appointment windows, but only if detention habits don’t swallow the flexibility first.
Current split sleeper berth rules stay in place for now, and anyone with a view on the data FMCSA plans to collect through the pilot has until Dec. 7 to file comments.