FMCSA Grants ELD Waiver for Rental Trucks
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published in the Federal Register the waiver TRALA had requested for short-term rental trucks. This 90-day waiver from the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) Mandate runs from January 19, 2018, until April 19, 2018.
While TRALA was told by the agency that this waiver was coming since December 12, 2017, TRALA had been waiting for the FMCSA to formally post it in the Federal Register so that any driver of a short-term rental truck can simply print out a copy of the notice and carry it in their cab during this time frame, according to the Association.
With the ELD Mandate going in to effect on December 18, 2017, many safety officers have been unaware of the waiver being granted for rental trucks, which had created confusion for several TRALA members. By posting the waiver in the Federal Register, TRALA expects the inspection process to be much simpler for rental trucks.
The 90-day waiver will allow trucks rented for 30 days or less to use paper logs to record their Hours-of-Service and allow TRALA members more time to equip trucks with ELDs. This 90-day waiver can only be issued once but following its conclusion, rental customers will still be able to rely on the eight-day exemption from the ELD Mandate for rental trucks that TRALA received late last year which runs for five years.
There are several requirements within the 90-day waiver that must be followed in order to benefit from this exemption. They include:
1) The waiver will expire on April 19, 2018.
2) The exemption covers rental of any property-carrying vehicle for a period of 30 days or less and evidence that a carrier has simply replaced one rental with another 30 days will be considered a violation.
3) Drivers operating …Read the rest of this story
