• Drivers and carriers who violate the HOS rules may be placed out of service, assessed fines, suffer civil penalties from FMCSA, face a downgrading of the carrier’s safety rating, levied federal criminal penalties for knowing or willful violations, and have CSA enforcement program scores adversely affected.
• Under the CSA enforcement program, HOS violations fall under the HOS Compliance category, one of the seven “BASIC” categories on which drivers and motor carriers are judged and scored.
• CSA scores are weighted, and HOS violations can affect carriers’ scores for two years and drivers’ scores for three years.

Drivers or carriers who violate the hours-of-service (HOS) rules face serious penalties:

• Drivers may be placed out of service (shut down) at roadside until the driver has accumulated enough off-duty time to be back in compliance or is using the proper type of logging device.
• State and local enforcement officials may assess fines.
• Violations appearing on a roadside inspection report or found during an investigation can affect a driver’s or carrier’s scores in the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) enforcement program.
• The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) may levy civil penalties on the driver or carrier, ranging from $1,300 to $15,000 per violation depending on the severity. Exceeding the driving limit by more than three hours is considered an “egregious” violation that can result in maximum penalties for the driver and/or carrier.
• If there is a pattern of violations, the carrier’s safety rating could be downgraded.
• Federal criminal penalties can be brought against carriers who knowingly and willfully allow or require HOS violations.

CSA and hours of service

Under the FMCSA’s CSA enforcement program, HOS violations are closely monitored and used to grade carrier and driver performance. Those drivers with the worst performance (when compared to their peers) are targeted for enforcement actions.

Under CSA, HOS violations fall under the HOS Compliance category, one of the seven “BASIC” categories on which drivers and motor carriers are judged. All HOS violations reported during roadside inspections (whether the driver was placed out of service or not and including written warnings) are entered into the CSA’s Safety Measurement System and used to generate the carrier’s and driver’s scores in the HOS Compliance BASIC.

Scores are weighted depending on the severity and age of the violation, how many inspections were conducted, and whether there was an out-of-service order. Violations continue to affect carriers’ scores for two years, and drivers’ scores for three years, and are updated monthly at the following website (note that CSA scores are currently hidden from public view but may be accessed by logging into the website): http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/.

Depending on how poorly a carrier is performing in relation to its peers on each BASIC, it may be open to an “intervention” from the FMCSA, including warning letters, fines, increased inspections, or worse, in an effort to get the carrier to improve its performance.

With the serious consequences that exist for HOS violations, coupled with the scrutiny of CSA, it is more important than ever to know and understand the regulations so that compliance is not a matter of guesswork.