Agricultural Exemption - Guidance for Livestock

The issue is a need for updated and more comprehensive guidance for HOS enforcement during a roadside inspection of a driver who has been in and out of the agricultural commodity 150 air-mile exemption. More specifically when the agricultural commodity is livestock. The signing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (signed 11/15/2021) has added language that also gives this 150 air-mile exemption from the final destination. The current guidance material on FMCSA's website is very helpful, but it is outdated since this added language was added. It is also unclear from any of the published guidance, if during this inspection while inside of the 150 air-mile radius, HOS violations for time outside of the radius can be documented. This would also include placing the driver out-of-service.

The guidance found on FMCSA's website is now outdated and has been since the added language in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. The guidance was not clear about listing of violations for HOS discovered when the driver was outside of the exemption, but currently while being inspected is inside of the 150 air-mile radius. We have encountered several drivers recently that had violations or did not have RODS for time spent outside of the exemption. Our officers have inquired about placing the driver OOS as a result of no RODS.

We are requesting that CVSA petition FMCSA for more specific and updated guidance about documenting violation(s) of HOS for a driver who is currently stopped inside of the 150 air-mile radius for the Ag Commodity exemption, to include placing the driver out-of-service, for violations discovered when the driver was outside of the 150 air-mile radius.