The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on March 18 issued a limited 90-day waiver under the federal agricultural hours of service (HOS) exemption for the delivery of anhydrous ammonia during the 2010 spring planting season.
The waiver came after several trade groups, including The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) and the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA), warned that FMCSA’s interpretation and implementation of the HOS exemption was too narrowly focused and excluded certain distribution activities that were vitally important to U.S. agriculture. “Had this action not been taken, spring planting season could have been pretty tough for both farmers and retailers,” said TFI’s Kathy Mathers.
The waiver, which is effective immediately, allows motor carriers with a satisfactory safety rating to use the agricultural HOS exemption when their drivers are delivering anhydrous ammonia from any distribution point to a local farm retailer or to the ultimate customer, as long as the transportation takes place within a 100 air-mile radius of the wholesale distribution point or the farm retailer.
The crux of the debate over the intent of the HOS exemption was outlined in a March 18 Federal Register notice. “Longstanding FMCSA guidance on its HOS regulations has consistently allowed that the agricultural operations exemption applies to the transportation of farm supplies from the local farm retailer to the ultimate consumer within a 100 air-mile radius,” the notice states. “FMCSA’s interpretation, however, has not extended the HOS exemption to deliveries from wholesalers located at port or terminal facilities to either local farm retailers or farms.”
FMCSA said its re-examination of the issue, however, “has made it clear that the exclusive emphasis of the Agency’s regulatory guidance on deliveries from local retailers to the ultimate farm consumer may not reflect today’s economic reality. Like farms, local retailers have limited storage capacity and therefore must constantly replenish their supplies during the planting and harvesting seasons. They are part of the ‘just in time’ distribution system that extends from the wholesaler to the ultimate consumer of the supplies. Given this reality, FMCSA has determined that it is in the public interest to issue a waiver to provide regulatory relief for the transportation of anhydrous ammonia during the 2010 spring planting season.”
TFI and ARA had been working with DOT and several members of Congress to resolve the issue for several months. The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and the Agricultural and Food Transportation Conference of the American Trucking Association had also pressed for a broader interpretation of the HOS exemption. The trade groups found allies in Reps. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) and Sam Graves (R-Mo.), both members of the House Agriculture Committee.
“I’m glad that the DOT and the FMCSA agree that the ‘just in time’ delivery system of anhydrous ammonia should remain exempted from the hours of service regulations during the busy planting and harvest seasons,” said Graves. “The agriculture industry and farmers have enough to worry about, without adding more excessive regulations from Washington on top of it. While there is more work to be done in this issue, the DOT and FMCSA have taken a step in the right direction.”
The 90-day waiver only applies to carriers delivering anhydrous ammonia, with the original interpretation of the exemption still applying to other input products.
ARA said it “commends DOT for making this decision to allow for movement of anhydrous ammonia from terminal to retailer during the 2010 planting season, but also recommends that transportation of all farm supplies from the terminal to the retailer should be exempted under the current rule. We will continue to work with DOT to get movement of all farm supplies along the supply chain exempt from the HOS rule during planting and harvest season, as Congress originally intended.”