TRANSPORTATION OF AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES— TPI UPDATE FOR U.S. SOD HAULERS
By Casey Reynolds, PhD
after accumulating 60 hours of on-duty time in any 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours in any 8 consecutive days, however, drivers of property- carrying CMVs may restart the 60- or 70-hour clock by taking 34 consecutive hours off duty (or 24 hours off duty for some industries).
TPI is working to secure turfgrass sod haulers relief from HOS and ELD requirements as an agricultural commodity, qualifying for exemptions.
As many of you know, recent changes to regulations on hours of service (HOS) and electronic logging devices (ELDs) for commercial vehicle operators have caused much confusion and concern among turfgrass sod haulers in the United States. Te Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) that regulates the U.S. trucking industry. In December of 2015, they published a Final Rule in the Federal Register regarding Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) and Hours of Service (HOS) Supporting Documents [Federal Register: Docket No. FMCSA-2010-0167]. In short, it states that by December 16, 2019, all commercial motor vehicle operators are required to have electronic logging devices (ELDs) that are self-certified and registered with the FMCSA.
Te primary intention of these ELDs is to track and enforce hours of service (HOS) regulations. Te HOS rules, set forth in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §49 CFR 395, limit property-carrying commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers to 11 hours of driving time within a 14-hour period after coming on duty following 10 consecutive hours off duty (except that drivers who use sleeper berths may combine a period of 2 hours of off-duty time with a period of 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth). Drivers must take at least 30 consecutive minutes off duty if more than 8 hours have passed since their last off-duty period of at least 30 minutes, if they wish to drive or continue driving. Drivers may not drive
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Tis new mandate incorporates the traditional HOS exemptions for hauling agricultural commodities within 150 air-miles of an owner’s farm or other source, but it has also raised the question among state and federal regulators and enforcement officers as to what exactly constitutes an agricultural commodity. In the FMCSA’s current definition, agricultural commodity refers to any agricultural commodity, non-processed food, feed, fiber, or livestock (including livestock as defined in sec.
602 of the Emergency Livestock Feed Assistance Act of 1988 [7 U.S.C. 1471] and insects). Although the statutory definition of agricultural commodity set forth in §49 CFR 395.2 is quite detailed in some respects, it is also circular and ambiguous. For example, “agricultural commodity” is defined in part as “any agricultural commodity. . .” Furthermore, there are plenty of agricultural commodities other than food, feed, and fiber. Examples include turfgrass sod, Christmas trees, horticultural plants, flowers, grain corn for ethanol, and others. As a result, the current FMCSA definition of agricultural commodities is not all-inclusive and is also susceptible to multiple interpretations, resulting in potentially inconsistent application of the HOS exemptions.
Te inconsistent interpretation and application of this definition over the last two years has caused U.S. sod haulers varying levels of trouble, depending on where they are and how their local enforcement policy is implemented. TPI has been working on this issue since Phase 2 of the new ELD mandate took effect in 2017, and we are currently working three separate avenues of relief that could potentially provide a resolution.
Te first, and potentially most immediate solution that TPI has completed is an Application for Exemption that we submitted directly to the FMCSA in December of 2018 to grant U.S. Sod Haulers an exemption from the new HOS and ELD mandate. Te FMCSA has a formal process
TPI Turf News November/December 2019
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