On Friday the Truck Renting and Leasing Association (TRALA) filed a new exemption petition with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
The petition requests an exemption for rental trucks from the agency’s Electronic Logging Device mandate (ELD). TRALA decided to proceed with its exemption request after a call with its Government Relations Committee on Jan. 11 where it was decided that additional time was needed for TRALA members to fully become compliant with the ELD Mandate and meet the needs of its customers. In its petition, TRALA is requesting that trucks rented for 30-days or less be exempt from the mandate and allowed to use paper logs until Dec. 31, 2018.
Last week the FMCSA formally posted TRALA’s 90-day waiver from the ELD mandate, which allows rental trucks to use paper logs until April 19, 2018. This waiver was granted by the FMCSA with TRALA’s understanding that the industry needs time to equip their rental fleets with ELDs and an additional waiver cannot be granted by the FMCSA. In TRALA’s discussions with the agency, the possibility of asking for more time through a shorter exemption petition was talked in some depth, the company says.
By filing the petition now, FMCSA should have enough time to formally publish the petition in the Federal Register, which will then set forth the required 30-day public comment period before an ultimate decision on its merits can be finalized. TRALA has also learned that the high ranking official in the FMCSA that had served as the point person for this issue and who supported TRALA’s waiver request has been let go by the agency – which simply adds to the complexity of traversing such a government bureaucracy as is the FMCSA. Despite this change, TRALA maintains strong relationships with several key decision makers within the FMCSA, including the Deputy Director of the agency, Cathy Gautreaux who is a long-time friend of TRALA’s, as well as FMCSA’s Director of Government Affairs, Wiley Deck.
To view TRALA’s new petition, please CLICK HERE.
