UPS receives five-year renewal on ELD exemption

October 26, 2022

Mark Schremmer

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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has provisionally renewed the United Parcel Service’s exemption from various provisions in the ELD mandate.

A notice of provisional renewal was published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, Oct. 26.

The exemption allows UPS motor carriers and drivers who use portable, driver-based ELDs to record engine data only when a driver is in the vehicle and the engine is powered on. It also allows UPS motor carriers to configure an ELD with a yard-move mode that does not require a driver to re-input a yard-move status every time the tractor is powered off.

FMCSA first granted UPS a five-year exemption in 2017. The renewal took effect Oct. 21 and is set to last until Oct. 21, 2027.

As part of the exemption request, UPS stated that its drivers are generally hourly drivers and use portable ELD devices and perform a significant amount of work outside of the commercial motor vehicle. UPS also noted that drivers generally use the ELD device to “punch in” while they are still in the building and then remain on the clock and logged in after they leave the commercial motor vehicle until they return to the dispatch office.

UPS said that automatic logging of events is not practicable for drivers using portable ELDs because the ELD is not synchronized to the engine’s electronic control module when the driver is outside the truck.

FMCSA says the exemption hasn’t had an impact on safety in the five years it’s been in place and believes the renewed exemption will achieve an equivalent level of safety.

The agency will accept comments on the renewal through Nov. 25. The renewal will remain in effect for five years unless there are any public comments that sway the agency to terminate it.

Comments may be made here, or by going to Regulations.gov and entering Docket No. FMCSA-2017-0054. LL