Washington — The Federal Motor Provider Security Administration has expanded an inventory of qualifying cargo and prolonged short-term hours-of-service exemptions and different regulatory reduction for industrial motorized vehicle drivers transporting objects supposed to help with COVID-19 pandemic reduction.
The amended extension of Emergency Declaration 2020-002 applies to drivers transporting heating gas – together with propane, pure gasoline and heating oil. The extension is about to stay in impact by way of Might 31; the emergency declaration was initially issued March 13, 2020.
The exemption continues to cowl drivers who transport:
- COVID-19 vaccines; constituent merchandise; and medical provides and gear, together with ancillary provides/kits for the administration of vaccines
- Medical provides and gear for the testing, prognosis and remedy of COVID-19
- Provides and gear to assist curb the unfold of COVID-19, together with masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, cleaning soap and disinfectants
- Meals, paper merchandise and different groceries for emergency restocking of shops or distribution facilities
- Gasoline, diesel, jet gas and ethyl alcohol
- Provides to help people impacted by the “penalties” of the pandemic (instance: constructing supplies for people displaced or in any other case impacted because of the emergency)
- Livestock and livestock feed
FMCSA says it’s persevering with the exemption as a result of “though the variety of COVID-19 instances started to say no within the U.S. following widespread introductions of vaccinations, persistent points arising out of COVID-19 proceed to have an effect on the U.S., together with impacts on provide chains and the necessity to guarantee capability to reply to variants and potential rises in infections.”
Drivers making routine industrial deliveries that embody “combined hundreds with a nominal amount of qualifying emergency reduction added to acquire the advantages of this emergency declaration” aren’t coated underneath the exemption. “To be eligible for the exemption, the transportation should be each (i) of qualifying commodities and (ii) incident to the quick restoration of these important provides.”
