(Washington, DC – Insurance News 360) – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has implemented a 90-day temporary waiver to the Congressionally-mandated electronic logging device rule in order to address the needs of the agricultural industries in the U.S.

The agency is also publishing final guidance on the agricultural 150-air-miles-of-service exemption and personal conveyance.

“We continue to see strong compliance rates across the country that improve weekly, but we are mindful of the unique work our agriculture community does and will use the following 90 days to ensure we publish more helpful guidance that all operators will benefit from,” said FMCSA Administrator Ray Martinez.

Roadside compliance with the record keeping reuirements for hours of service have been increasing (including the ELD rule) since 2017. Compliance is as high as 96 percent, with more than 330 separate self-certified devices on the registration list.

On April 1, full enforcement of the rule began. Carriers that did not have an electronic logging device as required were placed out of service and would remain out of service for 10 hours, in accordance with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance criteria.

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation