California Highway Patrol wants ELD requirement for intrastate truckers

Sacramento, CA — In an effort to “enhance commercial vehicle safety” and “create consistency between state and federal regulations,” the California Highway Patrol is proposing the state adopt regulations requiring the use of electronic logging devices for commercial motor vehicle carriers involved in intrastate operations.

CHP recently submitted to the California Office of Administrative Law an initial statement of reasons, contending the proposal would bolster safety by “improving compliance with the applicable hours-of-service rules and reducing the overall paperwork burden for both motor carriers and drivers.”

California regulations don’t require an ELD to record a driver’s record-of-duty status. The proposal would largely be consistent with federal ELD regulations promulgated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, CHP says.

Exemptions would include:

• Drivers operating under California’s 100 air-mile radius exemption
• Drivers operating a CMV manufactured before 2000
• Drivers operating a CMV in a driveaway-towaway operation 
• Drivers not operating more than eight days within any 30-day period
• Authorized emergency vehicles

The deadline to comment on the proposal is Dec. 19.

Federal ELD regulations were under review for possible changes this fall. That public comment period closed Nov. 15.