The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is moving toward a pilot program that could alter split sleeper berth rules for commercial truck drivers. The initiative aims to give drivers more flexibility in how they choose to divide their required 10 hours off-duty, while keeping road safety.
The agency opened a new public comment period on the information collection for the proposed experiment in a Federal Register notice published Wednesday, October 7. The research will explore whether different rest schedules, such as 5/5 and 6/4 splits, can achieve safety targets and provide drivers greater flexibility in managing their time off.
The existing rule permits drivers to take 10 consecutive hours off-duty or an approved split arrangement. Current rules allow for an 8/2 split or a 7/3 split, if the relevant requirements are met. A proposed pilot would look into cutting the minimum sleeper berth period from seven hours to five, allowing drivers to divide their rest into two five-hour blocks or a six-hour block and a four-hour block.
The FMCSA hopes to get up to 256 volunteers, including drivers who are part of teams, for the study. The U.S. Department of Transportation said in a late August announcement that participants would earn $1,600 for their involvement.
Revisiting the 10-hour off-duty requirement
The agency’s September 2025 Federal Register notice first sought public feedback on the proposed pilot program. It explained that existing regulations allow the mandatory 10 hours off duty to be taken consecutively or divided between a sleeper berth period of at least seven consecutive hours and a second period of at least two consecutive hours. The second period can consist of sleeper berth time, other off-duty time, or a combination of both, as long as the total reaches at least 10 hours.
In practice, the framework allows drivers to use split schedules ranging from 7/3 to 8/2. The new experiment would investigate whether other combinations could provide comparable or improved safety outcomes.
The latest notice is narrower in scope than the September 2025 announcement. While the earlier publication was identified as a notification of a proposed pilot program and a request for comments, the October 7 notice focuses on information collection and seeks public input on the data FMCSA intends to gather during the experiment.
Following through on the Trump administration’s trucking agenda
The initiative also aligns with a broader objective outlined in an April 2025 executive order on trucking issued by the Trump administration. Although the order attracted attention primarily for its English-language proficiency requirements and restrictions on non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses, it also called on Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to identify and begin implementing additional administrative, regulatory or enforcement measures to improve working conditions for American truck drivers.
In its latest Federal Register notice, the FMCSA linked the pilot program to that wider policy objective.
Under the proposed study, participating commercial motor vehicle drivers would have 16 weeks to manage their 10-hour off-duty periods using the alternative sleeper berth arrangements being tested. The participants would volunteer to take part and submit daily information about their activities, allowing researchers to assess the effects of the different schedules.
Chris Eckhart, a partner at trucking-focused law firm Scopelitis, said the October notice follows the September 2025 proposal rather than introducing a substantially different regulatory approach.
“The notice published Wednesday requests comments on the information collection the FMCSA will seek through the pilot,” Eckhart told FreightWaves by email. “I don’t think it breaks any new ground on the FMCSA’s plans for the pilot or other potential changes to the split-sleeper berth rule.”
The public comment period remains open until December 7, 2026.
A long road from proposal to implementation
Despite the progress toward launching the experiment, the process is expected to take considerable time. Although driver testing and daily activity reporting will run for 16 weeks, the September 2025 announcement estimated that the entire pilot program would require approximately 34 to 36 months.
The latest Federal Register notice also traces the proposal’s long regulatory history.
In 2010, the FMCSA held three listening sessions to examine potential changes to split sleeper berth requirements. The following year, when the Hours of Service rule was implemented in 2011, the agency did not include split arrangements extending beyond the existing 7/3 framework.
According to the October notice, the agency concluded that the issue required further investigation to determine whether additional flexibility could achieve a level of safety equivalent to or better than that provided by the existing rules.
The proposal gained further momentum in 2013, when the American Trucking Associations and the Minnesota Trucking Association jointly submitted a proposal to the FMCSA for what they called a “flexible sleeper berth pilot program.”
Research cited in the September 2025 notice also offered support for examining alternative sleep schedules. A review conducted in 2015 suggested that sleep divided into multiple segments can be restorative and, when structured strategically, does not necessarily impair performance. It also found that split sleep did not negatively affect daytime neurobehavioral performance compared with a consolidated sleep period of the same total duration.
The proposed pilot is intended to build on that background by collecting additional data under real-world operating conditions.
OOIDA backs flexibility but insists drivers retain control
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) supports giving truck drivers greater flexibility under Hours of Service regulations, but the organization stresses that drivers must retain control over how they use their rest periods.
Lewie Pugh, OOIDA’s executive vice president, said the association has consistently supported greater flexibility. He noted that OOIDA had been advocating for the option to reclaim three hours of flexibility as far back as 2018.
However, Pugh emphasized that the additional flexibility must remain at the driver’s discretion rather than becoming another tool for carriers or shippers to manage operating schedules.
OOIDA is concerned that employers or customers could pressure drivers to use the extra time while waiting for loading or unloading, effectively turning a potential benefit into additional unpaid waiting time.
As Pugh explained, the organization does not want carriers or shippers telling drivers they have an extra three hours available and directing them to spend that time off duty while their loading arrangements are delayed.
The distinction between genuine flexibility and pressure from commercial partners has been a central concern for OOIDA since shortly after the September 2025 notice. The association has continued to raise questions about the possibility of driver coercion as the proposed test moves forward.
Strict eligibility requirements for participants
Not every commercial driver will qualify for the study. The FMCSA has outlined several disqualifying criteria intended to limit participation to eligible drivers.
Applicants will be excluded if their motor carrier has an “unsatisfactory” FMCSA safety rating, or if its out-of-service (OOS) rate exceeds the national average. Drivers will also be ineligible if they have been subject to FMCSA enforcement actions during the previous three years.
These conditions establish a set of safety and compliance requirements for participation as the agency prepares to evaluate alternative rest schedules.
The pilot could eventually provide regulators with evidence to determine whether broader changes to split sleeper berth rules are warranted. For drivers, the central question is whether a more flexible division of the mandatory 10-hour rest period can improve day-to-day working conditions without compromising safety or allowing carriers and shippers to dictate how that time is used.
