Make the Most of FMCSA Exemptions and Exceptions

Platform Science

December 12, 2024

Ensuring your drivers are using the right exemptions and exceptions can help make your fleet more productive, keep drivers safer and less stressed, and make compliance easier to manage. The FMCSA offers several special provisions for fleets in specific circumstances, and not taking advantage of them might be wasting hours of drive time and lost efficiency.

The Difference: Exemption vs. Exception

While only a couple of letters apart, exemptions and exceptions carry drastically different meanings. Exemptions allow drivers to be exempt from the U.S. government’s ELD mandate, while exceptions only allow drivers to exceed certain preset limits by the FMCSA.

The most common exemptions are the short haul and yard move exemptions, while the most common exceptions fleets can utilize are the adverse conditions and 16-hour exceptions.

Exemptions

When talking about exemptions in the world of transportation, this refers to being exempt from the ELD mandate as long as the prerequisites of each type of exemption are adhered to. Two of the most common exemptions are:

Short Haul Exemption

Utilizing the short-haul exemption can help lessen the burden on your compliance team by having one less driver to worry about properly keeping their driving logs.

In order to properly use the short haul exemption, drivers must meet the following prerequisites:

Stay within an air radius of 150 miles for the US or 160 Km for Canada
‍Start and end their shift at the same terminal
Drive no more than 14 hours in the US or 16 hours in Canada
Take a 10-hour off-duty break before the next On-Day

The best use case for fleets to utilize the short haul exemption would be for drivers that are running dedicated routes back and forth between a location like a warehouse or a yard. As long as they are staying within the 150-air-mile radius, they can be exempt from the ELD mandate and remove that task from their daily activities.

The one caveat is that the drivers must be cognizant of how far they are away from where they started because they can be in violation quite easily if they break the radius. Making sure that your telematics software has the ability to execute this exemption is very important. Additionally, it is imperative that you have a procedure set in place in the chance that a driver breaks one of the requirements of the short haul exemption.

Yard Move Exemption

This should be an exemption that almost every fleet is using daily. The idea behind the exemption is that this allows drivers not to have time driven in the yard counted against their drive time (note that the yard move will still count against on-duty hours).

Yard moves often happen inside restricted areas, like a customer’s yard, a receiver facility, or the fleet yard. By letting drivers switch over into “yard move” mode, you are potentially saving hours of drive time through a day or week.

Exceptions

While an exemption permits drivers to not be subject to the ELD mandate, FMSCA exceptions set the parameters for specific situations in which drivers can temporarily “break” certain rules if detailed prerequisites are met. Two of the most-used exceptions are:

Adverse Conditions Exception

The adverse conditions exception is something fleets should prepare drivers to use if necessary. As the name implies, there must be extenuating circumstances to use this exception. The adverse conditions exception allows drivers to exceed the FMCSA regulations for maximum driving hours in any situation that increases the risk of a traffic accident.

The FMCSA's adverse driving conditions exception allows drivers to increase their shift by up to two hours when they encounter these conditions. This increases the maximum driving time to 13 hours for property motor carriers and 12 hours for passenger carriers. However, the adverse conditions exemption only applies to driving time, not the total time a driver is on duty.

Some examples of conditions that would satisfy the need for the adverse conditions exception include:

Snow, sleet, fog, or other challenging weather conditions
A highway covered with snow or ice
Unusual road and traffic conditions
Unexpectedly heavy traffic
Road closures due to accidents or other incidents

Fleets should be careful with their drivers that use this exception because this is something that is historically abused and could result in violations if not properly vetted and approved.

With the winter months approaching, fleets should ensure their drivers know about this exception, have been set up for success when using this exception, and know the proper times to utilize the exception.

The adverse conditions exception is only to be used to allow a driver to get to a safe location to go off-duty and is not to be used to extend the driver's day to complete a load. This is why fleets must be very careful and diligent when their drivers are utilizing this exception.

16-Hour Exception

This exception is another item that should be used sparingly by definition but can be utilized by drivers and fleets to complete additional loads or extend a driver's day to complete an existing load. This exception allows drivers to extend their driving window from 14 to 16 hours once every 7 days.

The other driver requirements for the 16-hour exception include:

Return to the same work location for the previous five workdays
Be released from duty within 16 hours after coming on-duty
Take a continuous daily reset break before and after the shift
Use the exception only once within a weekly on-duty period
Use no other exception at the same time

The purpose behind the 16-hour exception is to accommodate for long load/unloading times, as well as to complete other tasks that don’t involve driving. The intention behind this exception is to allow drivers that normally return home at the end of the day to not be stuck at a location due to driving/duty hour restrictions. Knowing about and using this exception can keep you out of violation due to driving hours, and get your drivers home at the end of the day without issue.

How Technology Helps

While offering great potential benefits, not violating the terms of these exemptions and exceptions takes attention to detail and diligence. Fleet management software can be very helpful in ensuring your fleet stays in compliance by leveraging your real-time data from your drivers and trucks.

For example, HOS tools from Platform Science can automatically integrate the short-haul exemption into your drivers’ workflow, including specialized tools that help them avoid any threshold-crossing. The systems can alert drivers when they are getting close to exceeding their 150-mile thresholds and make it easy to toggle over to short-haul exemption status in their driver profile. Voiding the exemption can result in a required 30-minute break, so these features really help drivers make the most of their time and avoid violations.

Understanding and utilizing exemptions and exceptions can have a significant impact on your daily operations. These can help make fleets more efficient and compliant, and keep drivers safe on the road at all times. They can help alleviate stress and improve job satisfaction for your drivers, supporting your retention efforts.

The software tools you choose make utilizing these provisions either easier or more difficult, based on your provider. Have questions about how Platform Science solves for these exemptions and exceptions? Contact us now.

‍Explore all the Platform Science fleet management solutions now.

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