Less than a month prior to the electronic logging device mandate’s initial enforcement deadline of December 18, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has filed a request with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for an at least five-year small-business exemption from the mandate’s requirements.
The request comes one day after the FMCSA announced it would soon publish details of a 90-day extension of the enforcement date specifically for agriculatural haulers, including but not limited to those hauling livestock.
If granted, OOIDA’s request would go well beyond that extension and exempt from the mandate motor carriers who fit the Small Business Administration’s definition of a small business in truck transportation, an entity with $27.5 million or less in gross annual receipts. It would include only such situated carriers who “do not have a Carrier Safety Rating of ‘Unsatisfactory,’ and can document a proven history of safety performance with no attributable at-fault crashes,’” the association’s exemption request states. “The exemption would not have any adverse impacts on operational safety, as motor carriers and drivers would remain subject to the [hours] regulations.”
OOIDA cites a myriad of concerns in justifying its request, from a lack of comprehensive government or independent third-party vetting of many of the nearly 200 self-certified ELDs currently on FMCSA’s registry to continued concerns about cybersecurity broadly.
It’s unclear when FMCSA will address OOIDA’s request.