NECA petitions for ELD exemption

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The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) recently applied for exemption from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)’s electronic logging device (ELD) mandate.

NECA represents more than 4,000 members in the electrical construction industry. Its largest electrical contractors collectively have a fleet of 13,766 commercial motor vehicles (CMVs).

The association’s members install, repair, and maintain electrical utilities and requiring them to use ELDs would be an unnecessary burden, NECA said.

Purchasing the technology would be expensive, NECA said, while the safety benefits are negligible. The association requests that its members be permitted to continue logging hours-of-service manual on paper.

“The actual operation of the CMVs by the line workers is so limited that the ELD requirement is triggered infrequently,” the FMCSA said Tuesday. “By this application for exemption, NECA seeks greater ‘consistency’ in the regulatory environment in which its line workers operate.”

NECA’s request was published on the Federal Register on Wednesday. The FMCSA will begin accepting public comments on the request in 30 days.

Full compliance with the ELD mandate is required by Dec. 16, 2019.

NECA, meanwhile, supports President Donald Trump’s infrastructure proposal released this week.

The proposal is an excellent first step in rebuilding our nation’s aging infrastructure, NECA CEO John Grau said.