The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is moving forward with two pilot programs that could eventually give truck drivers significantly more flexibility in how they organize their workdays.
The development comes despite warnings from highway safety advocates, who argue that one of the initiatives could effectively extend the federal 14-hour workday limit.
FMCSA announced Thursday that it has completed pre-testing for its Flexible Sleeper Berth and Split Duty Period pilot programs and is now reviewing the results ahead of a planned full launch in 2027.
Both initiatives are designed to determine whether giving drivers greater control over when they work, take breaks and rest can maintain or improve safety.
The programs were launched in September 2025 as part of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s Pro Trucker Package.
According to FMCSA, the recently completed pre-tests were designed to assess program procedures, data-collection methods and driver participation requirements before the pilots are expanded next year.
Each pilot is expected to include 256 drivers, bringing total participation across both programs to 512 drivers. Participants will take part for four months and can receive up to $1,600 if they complete all study requirements.
Split-duty pilot would allow drivers to pause the 14-hour window
The Split Duty Period Pilot Program focuses on one of the most significant restrictions in federal hours-of-service regulations: the 14-hour driving window.
Under the pilot, participating drivers would be permitted to pause that window for up to three hours per day while in a qualifying non-driving status.
That qualifying time could include off-duty or sleeper-berth periods, as well as on-duty time spent at pickup or delivery locations.
FMCSA said the additional flexibility could allow drivers to wait out heavy traffic or severe weather, deal with detention at customer facilities or take a break without having that time reduce the amount remaining in their available driving window.
The agency also plans to monitor shippers throughout the pilot to determine whether the added flexibility leads to increased detention or the exploitation of drivers.
The concept was tested between May 18 and July 17 with nine drivers from three motor carriers operating in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio. The drivers participated for six weeks and received $600.
When FMCSA proposed bringing back the Split Duty Period pilot last year, the agency said the study could help determine whether allowing drivers to pause the 14-hour clock could reduce fatigue and give them greater flexibility in dealing with real-world operating conditions.
Safety advocates question the potential impact
The Split Duty Period proposal has faced opposition from highway safety advocates, who argue that FMCSA should address the root causes of excessive detention rather than create a mechanism that could lengthen a driver’s workday.
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety criticized the proposal during the public comment period in November 2025.
The organization argued that the agency should focus on detention problems instead of pursuing what it described as a dangerous and misguided initiative.
The group also called on FMCSA to study detention time and driver coercion in relation to scheduling and fatigue. It questioned whether the agency had provided enough evidence to demonstrate that allowing carriers to pause the on-duty clock would actually improve safety.
One of the group’s central concerns is that the pilot could effectively increase a driver’s workday from 14 hours to as much as 17 hours.
Some trucking companies, however, have supported the idea of greater flexibility.
Werner Enterprises previously told FMCSA that more flexible hours-of-service rules could improve safety by allowing drivers to take breaks when needed instead of forcing them to follow schedules that do not always account for real-world conditions.
The carrier said additional flexibility could also reduce pressure on drivers during bad weather, periods of heavy traffic or situations in which a driver is not feeling well.
Flexible sleeper-berth pilot explores new rest combinations
FMCSA’s second initiative, the Flexible Sleeper Berth Pilot Program, is examining alternative ways for drivers to divide their required rest period.
Under the pilot, participating drivers will be able to split their off-duty time into two periods in any combination, provided the periods total at least 10 hours and one of them includes at least five consecutive hours in the sleeper berth.
The agency carried out the pre-test from April 1 through June 11, involving nine drivers from three motor carriers in Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. Those drivers also participated for six weeks and received $600.
FMCSA has considered similar changes in the past without ultimately rewriting the federal hours-of-service rules.
An effort in 2020 to loosen the 14-hour restrictions faced opposition from labor and safety organizations. Earlier sleeper-berth pilot efforts launched in 2017 and 2021 likewise failed to progress beyond the public comment stage.
The latest initiatives have moved further than those previous attempts, however, reaching the real-world pre-testing phase.
FMCSA is now reviewing the results and says the findings will be used to refine both programs before they are expanded to hundreds of drivers in 2027.
Why it matters
The two pilot programs could give FMCSA the real-world data it needs to consider some of the most significant changes to truck drivers’ hours-of-service flexibility in years.
If the pilots support the proposed approaches, drivers could eventually have more options for managing detention, traffic, severe weather and rest while operating within the existing 11-hour driving limit.
The outcome could therefore influence how the trucking industry balances operational flexibility and driver safety without changing the underlying maximum number of driving hours.
