Interested parties have until late Thursday night to file public comments on an application requesting a compliance exemption from the electronic logging device mandate for carriers with fewer than 50 employees. It’s unclear if the waiver would apply to owner-operators without operating authority who are leased to a larger carrier.
The Small Business in Transportation Coalition filed the petition with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, asking to exempt trucking companies with fewer than 50 employees from the mandate. The agency published the exemption request June 5, and it is accepting public comments for 30 days, until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday.
Public comments can be filed at this link.
The agency has also received an ELD exemption request from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which seeks to waive ELD requirements for small carriers with clean safety records and no crashes. It defines small carriers as having less than $27 million in annual revenue. FMCSA has not issued a decision on OOIDA’s request, which was filed in November.
Other judicial and congressional attempts to delay or overturn the mandate have failed, though some temporary, restrictive exemptions have been approved.
