FMCSA exempts short-term truck rentals from ELD rule

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has made an exception to the upcoming ELD mandate for short-term truck rentals. This exemption given to the Truck Renting and Leasing Association (TRALA) will go into effect no later than December 18, 2017.

TRALA applied for this exemption using a petition back in November of 2016. Their petition requested relief for trucks rented 30 days or less for a period of five years. The petition was not accepted in full; however, the structure of the exception does still benefit rental companies.

In order to avoid extra expenses for retrofitting and ELD compliance, rental truck companies were eager to be granted the ELD exemption.

This announcement was made today stated that there would be a “limited exemption” for rental truck drivers of “property carrying” CMVs rented for 8 days or less. No matter the reason the truck was rented, the drivers for 8 days or less are not required to use an ELD.

Although not required to use an ELD, drivers are still held to hours of service standards.

“While operating under this exemption, drivers will remain subject to the standard hours-of-service (HOS) limits, maintain a paper record of duty status (RODS) if required, and maintain a copy of the rental agreement on the vehicle”, according to the press release.

The FMCSA claims that after consideration and public comments that the level of safety is equivalent or greater to the level of safety achieved by drivers utilizing ELDs.