New guidance from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) allows agricultural commodity transporters greater flexibility for using the hours-of-service exemption in 49 CFR 395.1(k)(1) when their vehicle is empty or when traveling to multiple loading points. Specifically, drivers transporting agricultural commodities during the state’s planting and harvesting season are completely exempt from hours-of-service rules, […]
The Trucking Alliance has issued a new policy statement urging states to adopt the federal ELD requirements, citing that violations “are down dramatically”. Saying that electronic logging devices (ELD) should be as common as seat belts, this coalition of freight and logistics companies is calling on the states to adopt ELD requirements for in-state-only commercial […]
A request for small businesses to be exempt from the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate has been denied, according to Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA). OOIDA asked for a five-year ELD exemption for motor carriers with a proven safety record that are classified as small businesses, those with average annual receipts of up to $27.5 […]
The new Personal Conveyance interpretation which is an updated version of question 26 from §395.8 is below, including FMCSA’s examples of what is allowed and not allowed as PC: “Question 26: Under what circumstances may a driver operate a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) as a personal conveyance? Guidance: A driver may record time operating a […]
The recently published FMCSA guidance on personal conveyance provides additional flexibility for fleets that choose to allow their drivers to utilize off-duty driving or personal conveyance. The flexibility comes from the removal of the “unladen” term, which eliminates the strict requirement for a driver’s vehicle to be “empty,” and the appropriate use scenarios in Interpretation […]
Addressing confusion around Hours of Service rules The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is clarifying two points of confusion around the agency’s hours-of-service rules: the personal-conveyance provision and the 150-air-mile agricultural-commodity exemption. The agency received nearly 850 public comments on the two topics since publishing Federal Register notices in December 2017 proposing regulatory guidance […]
