Regulatory guidance comment period extended

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is giving the public more time to comment on whether its regulatory guidance documents need to be updated.

In a notice that is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, Sept. 11, FMCSA announced that it is extending its comment period 14 days beyond the original deadline of Thursday, Sept. 12.

FMCSA said it believes extending the comment period is in “the public interest.”

What is regulatory guidance?

Considering all of the trucking regulations on the books, there are plenty of questions about how to remain in compliance. Often, agencies offer regulatory guidance to clarify their rules.

With that said, regulatory guidance isn’t legally binding because it doesn’t go through the rulemaking process. FMCSA therefore is required to review its guidance documents every five years to ensure that they are “consistent and clear, uniformly and consistently enforced, and still necessary.”

In August, FMCSA published a notice asking for the public’s feedback.

“The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be reviewing its existing guidance documents to evaluate their continued necessity and determine whether they should be updated or eliminated,” the agency wrote. “As part of this review, FMCSA invites the public to identify and provide input on existing guidance documents that are good candidates for revision or rescission.”

Extension requested

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance told FMCSA that 30 days is not an “adequate amount of time to provide substantive, meaningful feedback to the agency on the more than 1,300 individual guidance documents.”

CVSA requested a 60-day extension. Although FMCSA added only 14 days, it noted that “public comments on any FMCSA guidance document may be provided at any time.”

How to comment

As of Tuesday, Sept. 10, the Regulations.gov website indicated that 14 comments had been submitted. Many of the comments focused on such topics as personal conveyance.

The public now has through Sept. 26 to comment on personal conveyance or any of FMCSA’s regulatory guidance documents. To do so, click here or go to Regulations.gov and enter Docket No. FMCSA-2024-0208. LL