Hours of Service of Drivers: Application for Exemption; Truck Renting and Leasing Association, Inc. (TRALA) |
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Topics: Truck Renting and Leasing Association
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Larry W. Minor
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
22 March 2017
[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 54 (Wednesday, March 22, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14789-14790]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-05632]
[[Page 14789]]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA-2016-0428]
Hours of Service of Drivers: Application for Exemption; Truck
Renting and Leasing Association, Inc. (TRALA)
AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of application for exemption; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: FMCSA announces that the Truck Renting and Leasing
Association, Inc. (TRALA) has requested an exemption from the
requirement that a motor carrier install and require each of its
drivers to use an electronic logging device (ELD) to record the
driver's hours-of-service (HOS) no later than December 18, 2017. TRALA
requests the exemption for all drivers of property-carrying vehicles
rented for 30 days or fewer because the ELD mandate will result in
unintended technical and operational consequences that will unfairly
and adversely affect short-term rental vehicles. TRALA believes that
the exemption, if granted, would not have any adverse impacts on
operational safety, as drivers would remain subject to the standard HOS
limits and maintain a paper record of duty status (RODS). The term of
the requested exemption is 5 years. FMCSA requests public comment on
TRALA's application for exemption.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 21, 2017.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket
Management System (FDMS) Number FMCSA-2016-0428 by any of the following
methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: www.regulations.gov. See the
Public Participation and Request for Comments section below for further
information.
Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building, Ground
Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building, Ground Floor,
Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
Each submission must include the Agency name and the
docket number for this notice. Note that DOT posts all comments
received without change to www.regulations.gov, including any personal
information included in a comment. Please see the Privacy Act heading
below.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments, go to www.regulations.gov at any time or visit Room W12-140
on the ground level of the West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE.,
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., ET, Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays. The on-line FDMS is available 24 hours each
day, 365 days each year.
Privacy Act: In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits
comments from the public to better inform its rulemaking process. DOT
posts these comments, without edit, including any personal information
the commenter provides, to www.regulations.gov, as described in the
system of records notice (DOT/ALL-14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at
www.dot.gov/privacy.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information concerning this
notice, contact Mr. Tom Yager, Chief, FMCSA Driver and Carrier
Operations Division; Office of Carrier, Driver and Vehicle Safety
Standards; Telephone: 614-942-6477. Email: MCPSD@dot.gov. If you have
questions on viewing or submitting material to the docket, contact
Docket Services, telephone (202) 366-9826.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Public Participation and Request for Comments
FMCSA encourages you to participate by submitting comments and
related materials.
Submitting Comments
If you submit a comment, please include the docket number for this
notice (FMCSA-2016-0428), indicate the specific section of this
document to which the comment applies, and provide a reason for
suggestions or recommendations. You may submit your comments and
material online or by fax, mail, or hand delivery, but please use only
one of these means. FMCSA recommends that you include your name and a
mailing address, an email address, or a phone number in the body of
your document so the Agency can contact you if it has questions
regarding your submission.
To submit your comments online, go to www.regulations.gov and put
the docket number, ``FMCSA-2016-0428'' in the ``Keyword'' box, and
click ``Search.'' When the new screen appears, click on ``Comment
Now!'' button and type your comment into the text box in the following
screen. Choose whether you are submitting your comment as an individual
or on behalf of a third party and then submit. If you submit your
comments by mail or hand delivery, submit them in an unbound format, no
larger than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches, suitable for copying and electronic
filing. If you submit comments by mail and would like to know that they
reached the facility, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard
or envelope. FMCSA will consider all comments and material received
during the comment period and may grant or not grant this application
based on your comments.
II. Legal Basis
FMCSA has authority under 49 U.S.C. 31136(e) and 31315 to grant
exemptions from certain parts of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Regulations (FMCSRs). FMCSA must publish a notice of each exemption
request in the Federal Register (49 CFR 381.315(a)). The Agency must
provide the public an opportunity to inspect the information relevant
to the application, including any safety analyses that have been
conducted. The Agency must also provide an opportunity for public
comment on the request.
The Agency reviews safety analyses and public comments submitted,
and determines whether granting the exemption would likely achieve a
level of safety equivalent to, or greater than, the level that would be
achieved by the current regulation (49 CFR 381.305). The decision of
the Agency must be published in the Federal Register (49 CFR
381.315(b)) with the reasons for denying or granting the application
and, if granted, the name of the person or class of persons receiving
the exemption, and the regulatory provision from which the exemption is
granted. The notice must also specify the effective period and explain
the terms and conditions of the exemption. The exemption may be renewed
(49 CFR 381.300(b)).
III. Request for Exemption
TRALA is a national trade association of companies whose members
engage in commercial truck renting and leasing, vehicle finance
leasing, and consumer truck rental. Its membership encompasses major
independent firms such as Ryder System, Penske Truck Leasing, U-Haul,
Budget, and Enterprise Truck Rental, as well as small and medium-size
businesses that generally participate as members of four leasing group
systems: Idealease, NationaLease, PACCAR Leasing Company, and Mack
Leasing System-Volvo Truck Leasing System. In total, its nearly 500
member companies operate more than 5,000 commercial leasing and rental
locations,
[[Page 14790]]
and more than 20,000 consumer rental locations throughout the United
States, Mexico and Canada.
``Renting'' is a term of art in the vehicle leasing industry,
generally meaning a transaction granting the exclusive use of a vehicle
for 30 days or less, whereas a lease generally means a transaction
granting the exclusive use of a vehicle for more than 30 days. TRALA's
petition is on behalf of the drivers of property-carrying commercial
motor vehicles (CMVs) rented for 30 days or less.
While TRALA fully supports the FMCSA's final rule to mandate ELDs,
it is concerned about unintended technical and operational consequences
that will unfairly and adversely affect short-term rental vehicles. The
commercial vehicle rental industry provides short-term rental services
to a large population of drivers on a daily basis. Most of these
drivers will employ an ELD to comply with the new rule. Considering the
significant number of different device platforms and subscription
options, it is highly unlikely that the driver's device would be able
to communicate properly with the rental company's telematics platform.
TRALA states that while FMCSA recognized these issues presented by a
lack of interoperability among ELD systems, and required certain
technical specifications in the final rule, the Agency stopped short of
requiring full interoperability among ELDs.
According to TRALA, many commenters to the proposed ELD rule raised
these same interoperability concerns. However, the rule requires only
that ELDs be able to transfer data electronically via either a
``telematics'' approach capable of wireless web service, or a ``local''
method capable of Bluetooth and USB 2.0 transfer. Furthermore, the
Agency decided ``not to require full interoperability between all
ELDs,'' reasoning that ``[a]lthough full interoperability would have
some benefits, it would also be complicated and costly.'' In essence,
according to TRALA, in the final rule the Agency left it to the ELD
manufacturers to address many concerns regarding non-interoperability
of the various software systems on the market.
TRALA elaborates on their two primary issues of concern relating to
the exemption request: (1) Data transfer and, (2) data liability.
Regarding the data transfer concerns, TRALA describes two potential
problems. First, a customer that is required to use an ELD may rent a
truck that has one operating system, while the customer may use another
operating system for its drivers; data cannot be transferred from the
rental vehicle to the customer's system unless both ELDs are on the
same platform. In addition, upon request by an authorized safety
official, a driver must produce and transfer the driver's HOS records
from an ELD in accordance with 49 CFR 395.24(d). This would include the
driver's duty status for the current 24-hour period and the prior seven
days. However, if the driver is operating a rental vehicle with an ELD
that is not compatible with the driver's normal ELD system, the data
will not transfer to the new vehicle's ELD system. That scenario would
be considered an ``ELD malfunction'' and the driver would be required
to reconstruct the RODS for the current 24-hour period and the previous
seven consecutive days on graph grid paper logs. TRALA's exemption
application requests that drivers of short-term rental vehicles be
allowed to avoid the uncertainties of attempting compliance with the
HOS rules using non-compatible ELD systems, and instead use paper RODS
during the rental period.
Additionally, regarding data transfer concerns, due to significant
use commercial vehicles are more prone to break-downs than non-
commercial vehicles. TRALA advises that when commercial vehicles break-
down, they are often replaced temporarily by short-term rental vehicles
until the original truck can be repaired. These repairs can take days,
if not several weeks, to complete. More often than not, replacement
vehicles come from a third-party rental company, which increases the
likelihood that the replacement truck will have a different ELD
operating system than the vehicle it is replacing, thus impeding data
transfer.
TRALA's second primary issue involves data liability concerns.
TRALA states that it has been suggested that rental companies should be
able to collect and report ELD data to customers, allowing customers to
access the data seamlessly. However, the final rule does not require
ELDs to be capable of reading and combining exported data from other
providers. Furthermore, lessors do not have the ability to combine data
from different devices into one report. TRALA states that requiring
lessors to bear the burden of safeguarding the data for each renter
would expose the rental company to tremendous risk with respect to data
security and protection. All parties involved in the business
transaction would probably reject rental companies' assumption of these
risks on behalf of their customers.
TRALA also briefly mentions two potential solutions related to
their exemption request. One potential solution is the use of a
``memory stick'' to transfer data between different telematics
platforms. However, the ELD rule does not require that devices be
capable of moving driver HOS data from one device to another using this
method.
Secondly, some drivers of short-term rental vehicles will be exempt
from the ELD requirements under the short-haul provisions in 49 CFR
395.1(e)(1) or 49 CFR 395.1(e)(2). To the extent that drivers of short-
term rental vehicles exceed the mileage or daily on-duty time limits of
these short-haul exemptions, or do not return to their normal work
reporting locations at the end of the duty period more than 8 times in
any 30-day period, they will be subject to the ELD requirements when
compliance becomes mandatory as of December 18, 2017. Thus, although
the short-haul exemption is helpful for a small group of drivers, TRALA
asserts that it does not address the underlying challenges that it
raises in its exemption application.
IV. Method To Ensure an Equivalent or Greater Level of Safety
TRALA states that granting this exemption will result in a level of
safety that is equal to or greater than the level of safety achieved by
complying with the ELD rule. The exemption is requested for property-
carrying CMVs rented for 30 days or less. Short-term rentals that
require HOS reporting represent an extremely small percentage of trucks
on the road; however, the requirements of the ELD rule would impose
significant burden on the industry and its customers. By allowing
drivers of short-term rentals to continue to operate with paper RODS,
TRALA's members and their customers would be able to comply with all
Federal and State HOS regulations while continuing to operate
efficiently and safely. TRALA further adds that an exemption from the
ELD requirements for short-term rental vehicles will actually improve
motor carrier safety enforcement by allowing enforcement officials to
follow current requirements as opposed to a more complicated process
required by the ELD rule.
A copy of TRALA's application for exemption is available for review
in the docket for this notice.
Issued on: March 16, 2017.
Larry W. Minor,
Associate Administrator for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2017-05632 Filed 3-21-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-EX-P