Yard moves guidance should include truck stops, OOIDA says

In response to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s updated guidance on what qualifies as a yard move, OOIDA asked the agency to expand its language to include such areas as truck stops and rest areas.

FMCSA’s proposed regulatory guidance provides examples of properties that would be considered “yards.” The agency said movements of commercial motor vehicles in “yards” would be considered “yard moves” and could be recorded as on-duty, not-driving time rather than driving time.

“FMCSA’s revised 2020 guidance provides that the time jockeying commercial motor vehicles in the yard is not driving time,” the notice stated. “The driver should record that time as on-duty, not-driving time.”

According to the proposed guidance, examples of properties that may qualify as yards include, but are not limited to:

• An intermodal yard or port facility.
• A motor carrier’s place of business.
• A shipper’s privately-owned parking lot.
• A public road, but only if and while public access to the road is restricted through traffic control measures such as lights, gates, flaggers or other means. For example, if a driver must operate on a public road briefly to reach different parts of a private property, the movement may be considered a yard move if public access is restricted during the move.

Under the proposed guidance, examples of properties that do not qualify as yards include but are not limited to:

• A public road without the traffic control measures noted above.
• Public rest areas.

OOIDA would like to see those qualified yard move areas expanded.

“The updated guidance aims to provide necessary clarity on what settings qualify for yard moves but should be expanded to specifically include various scenarios when drivers are moving commercial motor vehicles in locations that are not highways and/or public roads, such as truck stops, rest areas, and shipper/receiver facilities,” OOIDA wrote in its comments submitted on Feb. 3.

“We encourage FMCSA to add truck stops and public rest areas as examples of properties that may qualify as yards. We also recommend that the phrase ‘A shipper’s privately owned parking lot’ be amended to ‘A shipper’s and/or receiver’s facilities’ in the list of qualifying properties. These would be practical reforms that better reflect the realities of the industry.” LL