Good day,
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has granted a waiver to the Truck Renting and Leasing Association (TRALA) that will exempt all commercial rental vehicles from the electronic logging device (ELD) rule for drivers using a “property carrying commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) rented for 8 days or less.”
Drivers will still be subject to hours-of-service limits and must maintain a paper record of duty status if required along with a copy of the rental agreement.
“FMCSA has analyzed the exemption application and the public comments and has determined that the exemption, subject to the terms and conditions imposed, will achieve a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level that would be achieved absent such exemption,” it said.
TRALA represents rental companies including Ryder System, Penske Truck Leasing, U-Haul, Budget, and Enterprise Truck Rental, as well as businesses such as Idealease, NationaLease, PACCAR Leasing Company, and Mack Leasing System-Volvo Truck Leasing System. TRALA members operate more than 5,000 commercial leasing and rental locations, and more than 20,000 consumer rental locations throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada.
TRALA had petitioned FMCSA to allow trucks rented for 30 days or less to be exempted, and while it is disappointed that request was not granted, it said it was pleased that FMCSA agreed to eight days. According to the organization, during a meeting on Oct. 5, FMCSA told TRALA that the ELD mandate would allow drivers to combine HOS records from their own ELD platform with the one provided by a truck rental company even if they are different systems. Unfortunately, this likely would result in every driver having to manually log his/her HOS information by combining two systems. This could cause significant loss of time and would require drivers to learn a whole new ELD operating system all to fulfill HOS reporting for short-tern rentals, TRALA said.
Did you know?
Truck Renting and Leasing Association members represent 25% of all Class 2-8 vehicles on the road today, the association says.
Quotable:
“When fleets begin ordering more trailers in September, it indicates the market should be robust the following year. Freight expansion early next year will severely strain industry capacity, and fleets will need to add trailers to handle the added loads.”
– Don Ake, FTR’s vice president of commercial vehicles
In other news:
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Trump to hold tax plan rally with truckers
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Talent acquisition needs to be a priority
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Final Thoughts
FMCSA’s granting of an exemption from the ELD rule for rental vehicles of less than 8 days simplifies a process that was bound to create a logistical problem for lessors and lessees. But will it open the door to many more exemptions from various groups, ag haulers among them?
Hammer down everyone!
