In a release sent out Tuesday, March 13, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced it had taken “additional steps to address the unique needs of the country’s agriculture industries and provided further guidance to assist in the effective implementation of the Congressionally-mandated electronic logging device (ELD) rule without impeding commerce or safety.”
The announcement for an additional 90-day temporary waiver from the ELD rule for agriculture related transportation extended an initial 90-day waiver that went into effect in December 2017. During the first waiver period, the FMCSA said it would “also provide guidance on the existing 150 air miles hours-of-service exemption in order to provide clarity to enforcement and industry. The guidance is designed to allow industry to maximize the use of this statutory exemption. The Agency will consider comments received before publishing final guidance.”
The second waiver released two days ago said, “Additionally, during this time period, FMCSA will publish final guidance on both the agricultural 150 air-mile hours-of-service exemption and personal conveyance. FMCSA will continue its outreach to provide assistance to the agricultural industry and community regarding the ELD rule.”
New FMCSA Administrator Ray Martinez, who came to the position March 1 when he was sworn in by U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao, was quoted in the March 13 release as saying, “We continue to see strong compliance rates across the country that improve weekly, but we are mindful of the unique work our agriculture community does and will use the following 90 days to ensure we publish more helpful guidance that all operators will benefit from.”
The agency’s release continued, “Since December 2017, roadside compliance with the hours-of-service record-keeping requirements, including the ELD rule, has been steadily increasing, with roadside compliance reaching a high of 96 percent in the most recent available data. There are over 330 separate self-certified devices listed on the registration list.”
Full enforcement of the ELD rule, aside from the waiver, begins April 1, and carriers “subject to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) that do not have an ELD when required will be placed out-of-service. The driver will remain out-of-service for 10 hours in accordance with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) criteria. At that point, to facilitate compliance, the driver will be allowed to travel to the next scheduled stop and should not be dispatched again without an ELD. If the driver is dispatched again without an ELD, the motor carrier will be subject to further enforcement action.”
The release added that the agency “is committed to continuing the ongoing dialogue on these issues,” and it said, “The waiver and guidance will be published in the Federal Register. For more information on ELDs please visit: www.fmcsa.dot.gov/eld.”
