Agricultural Commodity and Utility Carriers Hours of Service Exemption Analysis

The study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 compares the safety performance of agricultural and nonagricultural carriers for the period 2005 through 2008, and also examines two additional industries: livestock and utility carriers, whose operations were not exempt from Hours Of Service (HOS) regulations prior to the 2005 passage of SAFETEA-LU. The Phase 1 analysis used carrier registration, inspection, and crash data from the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS). For the Phase 2 analysis, inspection data of agricultural commodity and utility carriers was collected during an FMCSA special study of a sample of States. These data included only those inspections occurring during the States' planting and harvesting seasons.