The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has denied a request from the Small Business in Transportation Coalition that sought to exempt trucking companies with 50 or fewer employees from using electronic logs.
In its request, SBTC stated the ELD rule “is merely a tool to determine compliance with an existing rule that regulates over-the-road drivers’ driving and on-duty time” and added that the rule isn’t a safety regulation and doesn’t impact safety.
In its decision to deny the request, FMCSA says SBTC’s application did not meet regulatory standards for an exemption, because it failed to provide “the name of the individual or motor carrier that would be responsible for the use or operation of CMVs” under the exemption and did not provide an estimate for the total number of drivers and commercial vehicles that would operate under the exemption.
The agency says it received more than 1,900 comments on the request and estimates that over 95% of the comments were in favor of the exemption.
