WASHINGTON, D.C. – Once again, you’re being given more time to comment on proposed hours of service rules in the U.S.

While a comment period was originally set to end July 31 and was extended to Oct. 30, you now have at least until Dec. 15 to have your say.

In the meantime, U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater has invited industry leaders, labor unions and safety groups to participate in three, two-day roundtables in September and October. They’ll cover the economic impact of revised hours of service rules, fatigue research and law enforcement; sleeper berth requirements, communication during rest periods, end-of-work week rest periods, and hours of work permitted each day; and categories of carrier operations, electronic on-board recorders and exemptions.

“The purpose of these meetings will be to obtain information these groups may have so that we can incorporate it into our deliberations and thus continue our rulemaking process,” Slater says.

Comments from these meetings will have to be added to the results of eight public hearings and more than 50,000 formal submissions made on the proposed rules.

Slater, however, is also facing the barrier of a pending Senate transportation funding bill that would effectively halt any work on updating the hours of service rules. It simply would prevent the Department of Transportation from spending any money to continue this “or any similar rulemaking”.

The proposal can be found at http://dms.dot.gov. n