The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration made some changes to federal commercial trucking regulations that have been met with mixed views from trucking officials, but no change was made in the daily driving limit and that was praised by almost every trucking officials.

Commercial truck drivers are limited to 11 hours of driving per day. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had considered reducing the daily limit by one hour but ultimately decided to make no change. The Obama administration said a reduction of an hour would cost the commercial trucking industry $1 billion in annual revenue, which could be disastrous as the industry faces a shortage of drivers amidst rising demand.

The administration did reduce by 12 hours the maximum hours a driver can work within a week to a new limit of 70 hours. A 34-hour gap between the end of one week and the start of another work week went unchanged but commercial truck drivers will not be allowed to drive more than eight consecutive hours without taking at least a 30 minute break.

“This final rule is the culmination of the most extensive and transparent public outreach effort in our agency’s history,” Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Anne S. Ferro said in a statement following the decision on Dec. 22. “With robust input from all areas of the trucking community, coupled with the latest scientific research, we carefully crafted a rule acknowledging that when truckers are rested, alert and focused on safety, it makes our roadways safer.”

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