ELD Waivers Allowed for Rental Trucks

Recently, FMCSA or Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has granted the waiver in ELD Mandate for the trucks running with short-term rentals. This will be a 90-day waiver effective from January 19, 2018 to April 19, 2018 with the intention to create more efficiency.

What Exactly Is ELD Mandate?

It is a US federal government regulation that is enacted by FMCSA. It specifically requires the drivers of commercial motor vehicles covered under this law to use an Electronic Logging Device or ELD in their vehicles. This device automatically records the duty status and hours of service. With this mandate, the government reduced the paperwork and violations happening due to the same.

What is Entailed in the Waiver?

This mandate has been in effect since December 2017, but many safety inspection officers are still unaware of the waiver given to rental trucks. Now, it's been posted in the Federal register of FMCSA. It allows the trucks rented for 30 days or less to use paper logs for keeping the records of their hours of service. It will be issued only once and the truck drivers will get an exemption of 8 days upon its conclusion.

The Requirements to Avail this Exemption:

The operators should follow several requirements as mentioned in the register to avail the waiver. These include:

• The waiver is effective until April 19, 2018.
• It covers the vehicles rented for 30 days or less than that.
• A compliance should be maintained with all other regulations.
• A copy of federal register notice should be carried along and presented to the law enforcement officer if requested.
• Maintain the safety records regularly to enjoy the exemption.

Apart from this exemption, TRALA is looking to file another petition to extend the waiver for additional 9 months. This will allow ample time for the truck drivers and operators to comply with ELD mandate by using the latest technology.