OTTAWA — The U.S. Court of Appeals has granted a 90-day a stay of its order to set aside the 11-hour driving rule and the 34-hour restart provision. As it now stands, the full hours of service rule will stay in effect at least until December 27, the Canadian Trucking Alliance reported late Monday afternoon.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration filed a motion on September 21 supporting American Trucking Association’s position that the court’s mandate should be stayed to give FMCSA sufficient time to address the objections raised by the court in its July decision. Last week, CTA filed an amicus curiae brief, reinforcing the need for a stay of the court’s mandate and pointing out the positive aspects of the Canadian experience with driving shifts longer than 10 hours and also with the 36-hour reset in this country.

Both the CTA and ATA argued that the trucking industry and its customers could not instantaneously shift to an hours of service regime with a different daily driving limit and without the 34-hour restart. Rather, such a conversion would require months of preparation and retraining of newer drivers, dispatchers, and enforcement officers who mey be unfamiliar with the previous rules.

CTA is now preparing a petition to FMCSA in support of ATA’s request for an interim final rule dealing with the two parts of the regulation being contended. CTA expects to file the petition within the next day or two.

While the trucking groups await the FMCSA’s decision on how it plans to proceed during the 90-day stay, ATA said it is confident the court has provided the agency sufficient time to issue an Interim Final Rule that retains the 11-hour driving limit and the 34-hour restart.

Meanwhile, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association expressed disappointment in response to the court decision denying the association’s request to review restrictions on split rest in sleeper berths.

OOIDA had asked the court to rule whether FMCSA had adequately given the public notice of the changes it made to the sleeper-berth rule, and whether the agency had adequately considered the effect of the 14-hour rule to discourage drivers from taking short rest breaks.