The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced on Tuesday, March 13 an additional 90-day temporary waiver from the electronic logging device rule (ELD) for agriculture-related transportation.
The congressionally mandated electronic logging device rule is meant to make it easier and faster to accurately track, manage and share records of duty status data. An ELD synchronizes with a vehicle engine to automatically record driving time.
During this time 90-day 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.
“We continue to see strong compliance rates across the country that improve weekly, but we are mindful of the unique work our agricultural community does and will use the following 90 days to ensure we publish more helpful guidance that all operators will benefit from,” said FMCSA Administrator Ray Martinez.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says ELD technology does not recognize the hours of service exemptions for agriculture that are in federal law. “The ELD mandate imposes restrictions upon the agriculture industry that lack flexibility necessary for the unique realities of hauling agriculture commodities,” Perdue said. “If the agriculture industry had been forced to comply by the March 18 deadline, live agricultural commodities, including plants and animals, would have been at risk of perishing before they reached their destination. The 90-day extension is critical to give DOT additional time to issue guidance on hours-of-service and other ELD exemptions that are troubling for agriculture haulers.”
A DOT rule issued in 2015 required truckers of commercial vehicles involved in interstate commerce to replace their paper driving logs with Electronic Logging Devices by December 18, 2017. In September 2017, the National Pork Producers Council petitioned the agency for a waiver and exemption from the requirement, and DOT provided an initial 90-day waiver – until March 18 – from the mandate for livestock haulers.
ELDs, which can cost from $200 to $1,000 plus a $30-$50 monthly fee, record driving time, engine hours, vehicle movement and speed, miles driven and location information. They electronically report that data to federal and state inspectors, which in turn is meant to help DOT to enforce its Hours of Service regulation. That rule limits commercial truckers to 11 hours of driving time and 14 consecutive hours of on-duty time in any 24-hour period. Once drivers reach that limit, they must pull over and wait 10 hours before driving again.
However, livestock is vulnerable to health issues triggered by extreme temperatures. Long-established industry standards preclude drivers from stopping while hauling animals, and that could run them afoul of the ELD and Hours of Service rules.
Since December 2017, roadside compliance with the House 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.
Beginning April 1, 2018, full enforcement of the ELD rule begins. Carriers 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 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.
