The two hours-of-service pilots FMCSA announced last September have cleared their first real-world checkpoint. In a progress update released Thursday, the agency said it has completed pre-tests of both programs — a dry run with nine drivers apiece — and is now reviewing the results to refine the protocols ahead of a full launch in 2027. The stakes are the two changes drivers have asked for longest: the right to stop the 14-hour clock while stuck at a dock, and more ways to split the sleeper berth than 7/3 and 8/2.
What the pre-tests looked like
The Flexible Sleeper Berth pre-test ran from April 1 to June 11 with nine drivers from three carriers in Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. The Split Duty Period pre-test followed from May 18 to July 17 with another nine drivers from three carriers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio. Each driver participated for six weeks and was paid $600. FMCSA's stated purpose was narrow: to check its own machinery — program procedures, data collection and participation requirements — before opening the doors to many more drivers next year. In the agency's words, the pre-tests "allowed FMCSA to evaluate program procedures, data collection methods and driver participation requirements before opening the pilot programs to many more drivers next year."
Pilot one: split the sleeper any way you want
Current rules let a driver split the required 10 hours off duty only as 8/2 or 7/3, with the longer piece in the sleeper berth. Under the Flexible Sleeper Berth Pilot, participating drivers may split that time into two periods in any combination, provided the two add up to at least 10 hours and one of them is at least five consecutive hours in the berth. In practice that opens 6/4 and 5/5 — the splits fleets and owner-operators have argued for since the 2020 rule left them out.
Pilot two: pause the 14-hour window
The Split Duty Period Pilot tests whether drivers can safely pause the 14-hour driving window for up to three hours a day when they are in a non-driving status: off duty, in the sleeper berth, or on duty at a pickup or delivery location. The September 2025 notice set the minimum pause at 30 minutes. The idea is to let a driver wait out traffic or weather, absorb detention time, or simply take a break without burning the driving window. FMCSA says it will monitor shippers throughout the pilot "to ensure the increased flexibility does not lead to increased detention and exploitation of drivers" — an acknowledgment that a pausable clock is also a clock a receiver can lean on.
This is the second attempt
A pause provision was in FMCSA's 2019 proposed HOS rule and was dropped from the final rule published in June 2020 after commenters warned it could be used to coerce drivers into unpaid waiting. The agency floated a stand-alone split-duty pilot later that year; it never got off the ground. The 2025 notices revived both ideas as formal pilots under 49 U.S.C. 31315(c), which caps any pilot at three years — long enough to generate data, not long enough to become policy by inertia.
What 2027 will look like
Full-scale pilots, as currently designed
256 drivers per pilot, 512 in total.
Four months per driver: one month as a baseline under today's rules, three months under the exemption.
Up to $1,600 per driver for completing all study tasks.
Data: ELD records, wrist actigraphy, the Psychomotor Vigilance Test and Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, plus crash and inspection records and surveys.
Carrier eligibility per the notices: a Satisfactory safety rating, no enforcement actions in the past three years, a driver out-of-service rate under 5.97% and a vehicle rate under 21.41%.
Driver eligibility: a valid CDL, a current medical certificate and no suspension or revocation in the past two years.
Interested drivers and carriers can send contact information to pilots@dot.gov.
FMCSA has not given a month for the 2027 start. What it has given is the shape: a controlled study with a comparison period built into every driver's participation, which is what it will need if the results are ever going to survive a rulemaking.
Who's for it, who's against it
“ Allowing drivers to pause their 14-hour clock would give truckers greater flexibility to rest when tired and avoid congestion, adverse weather conditions, or other factors that make driving unsafe. ”
OOIDA supported both proposals in comments last fall while asking the agency to make one thing explicit: that use of the pause is the driver's call, and that pressure from a carrier, shipper or receiver to use it would be unlawful coercion. Safety advocates read the same provision the other way. Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety told FMCSA that the agency "should be examining problems with detention time instead of proposing this dangerous and misguided initiative" — the argument being that a pausable clock treats the symptom of detention rather than the cause.
For drivers, none of this changes anything on the road today. The 14-hour window does not pause, and 6/4 is still a violation. What changed this week is that the experiment has a working protocol, 18 drivers' worth of data on whether it can be run, and a launch year. If the 2027 cohorts show the flexibility does not cost safety, the next step is a rulemaking — and this time the record will contain something the 2020 rule never had: numbers.
If you want in
Email pilots@dot.gov with your name, carrier and contact details to receive updates; there is no application form yet.
Check your carrier's numbers: the notices exclude carriers with a driver OOS rate above 5.97% or a vehicle OOS rate above 21.41%, and anyone with an enforcement action in the past three years.
Expect a four-month commitment with a wrist-worn sleep tracker and periodic reaction-time tests — the pay tops out at $1,600 only if every task is completed.
HOS news without the guesswork
Pilot programs, ELD rules, Roadcheck and every FMCSA move — on Qrylo.