No Soft Enforcement Period For Dec. 17 Electronic LD Deadline

(December 16, 2019) —

reports that the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is reminding all motor carriers and drivers subject to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)

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The deadline also pertains to grandfathered automatic onboard recording devices, which will no longer be allowed under the FMCSA regulations to provide records of duty status as a substitute for a required electronic logging device. Motor carriers using automatic onboard recording devices must have fully operational ELDs installed by Dec. 17. According to FMCSA, there will be no extensions or exemptions made to the ELD rule deadline. In addition, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance said inspectors will begin fully enforcing the ELD rule on Dec. 17, so there is no “soft enforcement” grace period.

If a commercial motor vehicle driver is required to have an ELD and the vehicle is not equipped with a registered, compliant device, the driver is considered to have no record-of-duty status. That also applies to a driver still using an automatic onboard recording device after the Dec. 17 deadline. According to the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria, property-carrying drivers who do not have a record-of-duty status in their possession when one is required will be declared out of service for 10 hours. A passenger-carrying driver without a record-of-duty status when one is required will be placed out of service for eight hours.

Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance-certified inspectors use the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria to identify conditions that preclude further operation of a commercial motor vehicle by its driver for a specified amount of time, or for some conditions, until the violation is corrected.

The April 1 North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria specifies out-of-service conditions related to deficiencies of record-of-duty status and hours-of-service rules and regulations. In addition, the alliance’s inspection bulletin regarding hand-held and electronic logging devices outlines the requirements for units used to record drivers’ hours of service, according to 49 CFR Part 395 Subpart B—Electronic Logging Devices.

FMCSA implemented the ELD rule to make it easier and faster to accurately track, manage, and share record-of-duty status information, and improve road safety and reduce crashes. An ELD automatically records a driver’s driving time and other hours-of-service data. Hours-of-service rules and regulations were developed to minimize driver fatigue and improve safety on the road. ELDs monitor a vehicle’s engine data, such as when the engine is running, whether the vehicle is moving, miles driven, and duration of engine operation, among other data-gathering tasks.

(SOURCE: The

, December 16, 2019. Available by subscription.)