FMCSA adds ethanol and heating oil to its nationwide fuel-haul hours-of-service waiver
Drivers hauling ethanol and heating oil can now run past the federal hours-of-service limits under a nationwide waiver, after FMCSA added both products to its existing fuel-transport exemption. Commercial Carrier Journal reported the change. For jobbers staring down a cold snap and tight delivery windows, that is the one development worth your time today.
What the waiver does
The hours-of-service rules cap a driver at 11 hours behind the wheel inside a 14-hour on-duty window, with a 70-hour ceiling over eight days. A fuel-haul waiver suspends those caps for qualifying loads, which lets a carrier keep a truck and driver moving when a reset would otherwise park them. FMCSA already covered gasoline and diesel movements. Adding ethanol and heating oil pulls two more products most of the Northeast and Midwest leans on every winter into the same relief.
Ethanol matters because of the blend. Every gallon of E10 needs its ethanol component trucked and railed into the terminal before it ever hits a tank wagon, and tight driver hours on that leg back up the whole chain. Heating oil is the more direct one. When temperatures drop and homes burn through tanks faster than a normal route can refill them, the driver-hour ceiling is often the thing that stops a delivery, not the supply.
Why operators care now
The timing lines up with heating season. A hauler running heating oil into rural accounts in January can cover more stops per shift without tripping a violation, which is real margin when you are paying for the truck and the driver either way. The waiver does not change your product cost or your rack price. It changes how many loads one driver can legally move in a stretch.
One caution. A waiver on federal hours does not erase fatigue, and it does not wave off a carrier's liability if a tired driver puts a tank wagon in a ditch. Safety managers who lean on these exemptions still own the call on whether a driver is fit to keep going. The relief is a legal allowance, not a free pass on judgment.
What to watch
Watch for the fine print FMCSA attaches when the full notice circulates, specifically the expiration date and any state-level restrictions, since governors and state agencies sometimes layer their own emergency declarations on top. Watch whether the agency sets conditions tied to a declared regional shortage or makes the ethanol and heating-oil coverage open-ended like the gasoline and diesel lines. And watch the weather. A waiver only helps if the cold actually shows up and the delivery demand with it.