Mark Schremmer
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to revisit its ELD rule in 2025.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Spring 2024 Unified Regulatory Agenda, FMCSA is targeting June 2025 for a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding electronic logging devices. The notice is expected to propose revisions to the agency’s existing ELD rule.
In September 2022, FMCSA requested feedback from truckers about how it can improve the ELD mandate.
FMCSA’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking considers changes to the ELD mandate in five areas:
- Applicability to pre-2000 engines
- Addressing ELD malfunctions
- The process for removing an ELD from FMCSA’s list of certified devices
- Technical specifications
- ELD certification
As part of the notice, FMCSA asked truck drivers for feedback on the original mandate’s decision to exempt trucks with pre-2000 engines.
“Should FMCSA reevaluate or modify the applicability of the current ELD regulation for rebuilt or remanufactured CMV engines or glider kits?” the agency asked.
As part of comments submitted to the agency in November 2022, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association said that there is no justification for removing the exemption.
“The agency lacks data confirming the ELD mandate has improved highway safety and has failed to demonstrate how the expansion of existing requirements to vehicles operating on pre-2000 and rebuilt pre-2000 engines would enhance safety,” the Association wrote in 2022. “OOIDA is unaware of any research that demonstrates vehicles operating under the pre-2000 exemption fail to meet the same level of safety as vehicles with ELDs.”
Individual truck drivers also spoke out against any plans to remove the ELD exemption for older trucks.
“The job of the FMCSA is to advance highway safety,” Dan Roe wrote. “When the FMCSA implemented the ELD rules, it exempted vehicles with pre-2000 engines. To my knowledge, there have not been any problems with these vehicles causing injury-related crashes. Therefore to repeal the exemption for pre-2000 engines will do nothing to advance highway safety.”
Although it remains unclear exactly what FMCSA will propose, the agency appears poised to move forward with a notice of proposed rulemaking next year.
