Federal regulators are edging closer to testing more flexible sleeper‑berth splits, and the industry’s message in the final hours before the comment window closed was clear: give drivers the option — and build ironclad safeguards so nobody is pushed into using it. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s proposed Flexible Sleeper Berth Pilot Program would test 6/4 and 5/5 splits of the required 10 hours off duty alongside a separate “split duty period” pilot to pause the 14‑hour clock. Both efforts are intended to study whether added flexibility can maintain or improve safety.
In comments filed ahead of the November 17, 2025 deadline, major driver and carrier groups urged FMCSA to guard against real‑world scheduling pressure. The Owner‑Operator Independent Drivers Association pressed the agency to make explicit that split‑sleeper decisions rest with the driver and to provide an anonymous reporting channel inside the pilot’s mobile tools. The Truckload Carriers Association called for keeping participant identities confidential to limit leverage by shippers, receivers or brokers, and for FMCSA to proactively monitor its National Consumer Complaint Database for red flags. Safety advocates echoed those concerns, asking for direct access to FMCSA staff to report coercion, allowance for anonymous tips and random interviews.
The coercion warnings come as DOT is packaging the pilots within a broader push to improve drivers’ quality of life. FMCSA says protocol development is slated to begin in early 2026, with more than 500 drivers expected to take part across the two pilots — each limited to about 256 CDL holders — to measure safety outcomes under controlled conditions.
Why it matters: flexibility cuts both ways on the road. For drivers, the ability to split rest more evenly could help avoid rush‑hour traffic, thread tight appointment windows, or take restorative breaks when fatigue actually hits. For dispatchers and shipping partners, that same flexibility risks becoming a de facto scheduling tool unless FMCSA and carriers hard‑wire driver discretion, strong anti‑retaliation language, and easy reporting into the study design. That’s why commenters are pushing the agency to tie participation to confidentiality, in‑app complaint features, and active oversight using existing federal complaint databases.
There’s also a data‑quality angle. Stakeholders asked FMCSA to make sure it captures operating environments that challenge driver rest — including cross‑border corridors where commercial inspections and port‑of‑entry queues can shred planned schedules. They want the agency to consider geography and operating type when selecting participants so results reflect reality in high‑delay lanes, not just ideal scenarios.
What carriers should do now: even before FMCSA finalizes study protocols, fleets can get ahead of the curve by codifying “driver’s choice” policies on split usage, training dispatch on when not to ask for a split, and establishing no‑fault reporting paths that mirror what commenters want to see in the pilots. If the studies proceed as outlined — a four‑month cycle per driver, with one month under today’s rules and three months under the exemption — the cleanest dataset will come from operations that treat split flexibility as a safety tool, not a capacity lever.
The bottom line for the industry is that FMCSA’s next steps will signal whether the government views schedule flexibility as an on‑ramp to safer, saner days — or as something that demands stronger enforcement muscles to prevent old coercion problems from wearing a new name. Either way, the call from drivers and fleets this week was to put driver discretion at the center and watch the data, not the clock.
Sources: FreightWaves, FMCSA, Heavy Duty Trucking, Yahoo News
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