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Hours-of-service rules waived for tornado relief efforts in Kentucky

Exemption runs through Jan. 14; ALAN coordinating voluntary supply chain relief efforts

John Kingston
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Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Hours-of-service rules in Kentucky will be waived for trucks and other vehicles assisting in the state’s cleanup after devastating tornadoes over the weekend.

The state’s Transportation Cabinet head, Jim Gray, signed the order over the weekend, soon after the twisters had wreaked havoc and led to significant loss of life. It was released Monday.

The HOS waiver applies to any commercial vehicles providing services related to restoring power, delivering gasoline, propane and diesel, and removing debris.

Kentucky’s waiver also bars trucks involved in those activities from being required to stop at weigh stations. In addition, it exempts trucks involved in the cleanup from being subject to overweight permit fees.


Registration under the International Registration Plan, which covers trucks traversing multiple states, is also waived.

The order will be in place until Jan. 14. Governors have the flexibility to order such waivers without preapproval from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Separately, the American Aid Logistics Network (ALAN), which coordinates voluntary relief efforts in the wake of natural disasters, said it had swung into action and had begun daily conference calls with various organizations.

“During these calls, we’re getting key updates about which humanitarian services are most needed — and what kinds of specific challenges that first responders, rescuers and area non-profits are facing,” Kathy Fulton, executive director of ALAN, said in an email blast sent Monday. “We are sharing information from those calls with our partners in the non-profit, government, and business community so that they, too, can be working with the latest, most accurate information.”


 Fulton’s email provided a link to a site for those offering equipment to aid in relief efforts. 

“As the non-profits assess what is needed in the affected areas, we expect them to request various forms of logistics assistance from ALAN, including transportation, warehousing, and material handling,” Fulton said in her note. “So please, stay in touch with us often over the next few days and weeks. Your supply chain help may be urgently needed.”

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John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.