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FMCSA Announces Decision on TRALA ELD Petition

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will announce its final decision on TRALA's ELD petition tomorrow morning in the Federal Register.  The official decision can be viewed in its entirety by clicking here


The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will announce its final decision on TRALA's ELD petition tomorrow morning in the Federal Register.  The official decision can be viewed in its entirety by clicking here
 
As discussed on Thursday of last week, TRALA learned that FMCSA would grant part of its request for relief from the ELD Mandate but much of its request was denied.  The agency will allow all rental trucks - for any reason - the ability to use paper logs instead of requiring them to use an ELD for up to 8 total days.  While that is a partial victory for TRALA members and their customers, TRALA is deeply concerned about the administrative burden this will place on many of its members' customers in addition to the predictable confusion that it will place on law enforcement personnel for rental trucks used between 9-30 days, particularly for fleets.  
 
The result of the agency's decision is essentially that it will be necessary for TRALA members to have their commercial rental trucks equipped with an ELD because the agency told TRALA directly that it would allow a combination of two types of hours-of-service data to be used during a road-side inspection.  That means rental trucks do not have to have the same ELD platform as the renter but it would require the renter's driver to manually fill out his/her hours-of-service reporting to take into account two different systems.  This is likely to cause significant administrative hurdles and technological logistical issues that will need to be figured out by all rental truck customers.  
 
As mentioned yesterday, in response to TRALA's concerns and technical questions, FMCSA agreed to hold a conference call on Thursday, October 19 at 2:00 PM EDT.  TRALA was also told in its meeting last week with FMCSA that if technical information was brought to light during this call that the agency could not solve, they would be open to looking at addressing those aspects subsequently to their official ruling on TRALA's petition.
 
While seemingly decided, TRALA is continuing to approach every possible angle in an attempt to secure its full petition request and is working with many of its allies to try and figure out a way to address the looming issues in the next few months.   
 
TRALA hopes all its members will take part in the conference call on October 19.  The call in number will be 1-866-299-7945 and the pass code will be 594572#.  If you have any questions, please reach out to Jake Jacoby at jjacoby@trala.org or 703-299-9120. 

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