FMCSA renews ELD exemption for truck rental group

The Truck Renting and Leasing Association has received preliminary approval to continue waiving the electronic logging device requirement for its drivers.

In a notice scheduled to publish in the Federal Register on Monday, Sept. 12, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration granted a provisional renewal of the group’s exemption.

“The exemption allows drivers of property-carrying commercial motor vehicles rented for eight days or less, regardless of reason, to not use an ELD,” FMCSA wrote. “These drivers remain subject to the standard hours-of-service limits and must maintain a paper record-of-duty status if required.”

The renewal is for five years and goes into effect on Oct. 12.

FMCSA initially granted the association the exemption in October 2017.

At the time, the agency wrote that an exemption of up to eight days for drivers of rental commercial motor vehicles would give most carriers sufficient time to repair or replace their usual vehicles “while minimizing any temptation to extend non-ELD operations.”

FMCSA determined eight days as appropriate, because it coincides with an existing provision that allows a driver an eight-day window to fix an ELD malfunction.

The agency said it is not aware of any issues stemming from the current exemption.

“There is no indication of an adverse impact on safety while operating under the terms and conditions specified in the initial exemption,” FMCSA wrote.

The exemption is based on the following conditions:

• The Truck Renting and Leasing Association and its drivers must comply with all other applicable Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 CFR part 350-399).
• Evidence that a carrier has replaced one rental commercial motor vehicle with another on eight-day cycles or attempted to renew a rental agreement for the same commercial motor vehicle for an additional eight days will be regarded as a violation of the exemption and subject the carrier and driver to the penalties for failure to use an ELD.
• Drivers must have a copy of this notice in their possession while operating under the terms of the exemption. The exemption document must be presented to law enforcement officials upon request.
• Drivers must have a copy of the rental agreement in the commercial motor vehicle, and make it available to law enforcement officers on request. The agreement must clearly identify the parties to the agreement, the vehicle, and the dates of the rental period.
• Drivers must possess copies of their record-of-duty status for the current day and the prior seven days, if required on those days.

How to comment

Once the notice publishes in the Federal Register on Sept. 12, the public will have 30 days to comment. To do so, go to the Regulations.gov website and enter Docket No. FMCSA-2016-0428. LL