Blue Ink Technology

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has denied an electronic logging exemption request made by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

The request was submitted in November 2017, just before the ELD mandate took effect. They asked for a five-year exemption for motor carriers classified as small businesses according to the Small Business Administration, with a proven safety history with no at-fault crashes, and who do not have a Carrier Safety Rating of “Unsatisfactory.”

In its denial notification to OOIDA on Monday, July 2, the FMCSA claimed that the request was a challenge to the ELD rule itself, and did not take into account the difficulty of “trying to identify and validate drivers who meet the proposed exemption criteria”.

Todd Spencer, President of OOIDA, says, “We are puzzled and disappointed at the response from the agency. For months, the FMCSA has been granting exemptions to other organizations, some not even actually in trucking but relying on trucks for their businesses.”

The FMCSA's decision has not yet been published, but could shed more light on the agency's reasons for denying this exemption request. The exemption fight is far from over, however. Spencer points to several legislative proposals in Congress that could provide the exemptions OOIDA wants.

For more information see OOIDA's press release.