PCCA Journal|3
rd
Quarter 2015
15
M
ost commercial motor vehicles used for
utility service work spend less than two
hours a day on DOT-regulated high-
ways. These trucks are used to move
highly skilled utility workers and special
equipment to and from a jobsite. Once there, these trucks are
our offices and toolboxes. The Department of Transportation
regulates these work trucks in the same manner they do any
over-the-road and freight companies, but the fact is they are
just not the same.
In 2005, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
(FMCSA) adopted new regulations under the Safe, Account-
able, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act. Within
that legislation was an exemption from the federal hours-of-
service (HOS) regulations for operators of commercial motor
vehicles engaged in certain defined operations. One of those
exemptions was 395.1(n) that exempts Utility Service Ve-
hicles from any hours-of-service requirements. Immediately
following the adoption of the new rules, the utility service
companies began to exercise this exemption as the ultimate
provider of the various utilities, but over the decade that
followed, many of the utility companies who exercised their
HOS exemption began to subcontract a more and more of the
service and repair work.
Working closely with one of the PCCA members, Transpor-
tation Safety Consultants established the goal of receiving the
same hours-of-service exemption that the utility companies
received extended to subcontractors. Initially, the goal was
just to be exempt during periods of emergency repair, but the
final outcome was an acknowledgement from the Department
of Transportation that subcontractors meeting the definition
Explaining the Hours-of-Service
Exemption for Utility Service Vehicles
By Peter Lolley
As a Utility Service Vehicle Driver, you are exempt from rules
and regulations set forth in 49 C.F.R. §395 for hour of service.
In the event of a roadside inspection or when asked for a
Records of Duty Status by any law enforcement official, it is
important to know how to respond with the correct informa-
tion.
Question: What is a Utility Service Vehicle?
FMCSA defines a Utility Service Vehicle (USV) as a Commer-
cial Motor Vehicle
• Used in the furtherance of repairing, maintaining, or oper-
ating any structures or any other physical facilities neces-
sary for the delivery of public utility services, including the
furnishing of electric, gas, water, sanitary sewer, telephone,
and television cable or community antenna service; and
• While engaged in any activity necessarily related to the ul-
timate delivery of such public utility services to consumers,
including travel or movement to, from, upon, or between
activity sites (including occasional travel or movement out-
side the service area necessitated by any utility emergency
as determined by the utility provider); and
• Except for any occasional emergency use, operated primar-
ily within the service area of a utility’s subscribers or con-
sumers, without regard to whether the vehicle is owned,
leased, or rented by the utility.
Question: Why am I exempt from Hours of Service?
§ 395.1 (n) states, “Utility service vehicles. The provisions of
this part shall not apply to a driver of a utility service vehicle
as defined in § 395.2.”
Question: When am I required to prepare a driver’s daily log?
Any time your are assigned to a job for a new utility provider
or for a customer that does not provide a utility service,
and will be driving to a location more than 100 air miles
from the facility you started at for that day, or working a
period over 12 hours.
Sample roadside questions from enforcement officers:
“May I see your log book?”
Response: “As a Utility Service Vehicle I have been informed
that we’re exempt from completing a logbook.”
Incorrect Response: “I was told I don’t have to do one.” “I
don’t have one.” “We don’t do them.”
“Who informed you that you’re exempt?”
Response: “I have been trained by our Safety Director and
Compliance Consultant based on guidance from the FMCSA.”
Utility Service Vehicle Directions
Continued on page 16