By: Peggy Kirk Hall, Wednesday, March 14th, 2018

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued a second 90-day waiver from the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) rule for agricultural transportation. The agency had previously issued a waiver that was set to expire on March 18, 2018. The ELD rule requires commercial haulers to utilize electronic technology that automatically records hours-of-service (HOS) data.  Read our previous post on the ELD rule here.

The reason for delaying the ELD rule for agriculture, according to the agency, is to provide more time for the agency to address agriculture’s unique needs. Agriculture has argued that HOS provisions that mandate a ten hour off-duty period for drivers put agricultural commodities like livestock, fish, bees, and plants at risk by extending the transportation period. Although the HOS rule contains several exemptions for agriculture, such as for personal conveyances and for transport of commodities within a 150-air mile radius of the source, many argue that the exemptions need further clarification and that electronic logging device technology does not recognize the agricultural exemptions. In addition to delaying the ELD compliance date for agriculture, FMCSA also promises to provide further guidance on the Hours-of-Service exemptions and their relationship to the ELD rule. guidance should help drivers understand if and how the ELD rule applies to their transportation of agricultural goods.

FMCSA’s announcement of the new waiver is available here. More information about the ELD rule and agriculture is here and the HOS exemptions for agriculture are here.