The most-requested rule change in trucking — 5/5 and 6/4 splits — exists, but only for a few hundred enrolled drivers. Here is where the program actually stands.
FMCSA published the proposal in the Federal Register on September 17, 2025 (docket FMCSA-2025-0193), as part of the Pro-Trucker Package announced under Executive Order 14286. The Flexible Sleeper Berth (FSB) pilot lowers the minimum berth floor from 7 consecutive hours to 5: participating drivers may split the required 10 hours into two periods totaling at least 10 hours with one period of at least 5 consecutive sleeper-berth hours — which unlocks 5/5 and 6/4 pairings alongside the standard 8/2 and 7/3. Everything else is unchanged: 11-hour driving limit, 14-hour window recalculation mechanics, the 2-hour minimum per period, and the 60/70-hour weekly rules.
It is a formal safety study under 49 U.S.C. 31315(c) — up to three years, about 256 participants, four months of data collection per driver, with compensation for completing study tasks. FMCSA also runs a companion Split Duty Period (SDP) pilot testing a daily 3-hour "pause" of the 14-hour window.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Sept 17, 2025 | Proposed rule published in the Federal Register; docket FMCSA-2025-0193; comments closed Nov 17, 2025 |
| Apr 1 – Jun 11, 2026 | Six-week pre-test: 9 drivers from 3 motor carriers (Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin) trial 5/5 and 6/4 splits and the study's data-collection tools |
| Aug 27, 2026 | FMCSA announces pre-test completion and refinement of both pilots ahead of launch |
| 2027 (planned) | Full rollout: ~256 FSB participants (+256 SDP), four months per driver |
Only if you and your carrier are enrolled. For everyone else the 2020 rule stands unchanged: one period must include at least 7 consecutive sleeper-berth hours. A 6/4 split without enrollment is a violation of 395.1(g)(1)(ii) — and it fails on paper exactly like any other bad pairing. Enrollment information has gone through FMCSA's application forms and the pilots@dot.gov contact; carriers, not individual drivers, are the unit of participation in practice.
The Federal Register notice reviews the research on split sleep — studies suggesting split sleep is restorative and does not degrade neurobehavioral performance versus consolidated sleep of the same total — and the decades of petitions for shorter berth floors. The pilot's job is to produce fatigue and safety data sufficient to justify (or reject) a permanent rule change.
Meanwhile, everything legal today is checkable: the split calculator scores 8/2 and 7/3 pairings, the rule checker scores your split against all four rule sets (standard, this pilot, the McKee Foods exemption and the 14-hour pause pilot), and the rule explained covers every way to get your 10 hours. Prefer paper? There is a printable one-page rule sheet.
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Sources: Federal Register 2025-17939 (Sept 17, 2025), FMCSA HOS page & newsroom (Aug 2026); status verified October 2026.
Primary sources only — the statute, form or paper this page is built on.