Commercial motor vehicle drivers in the United States are exempt from Hours of Service (HOS) rules within a 150-air-mile radius of the source agricultural commodities being hauled during state-determined planting and harvesting periods, and when transporting farm supplies in certain circumstances. 49 CFR § 395.1(k). This exception covers the transportation of agricultural commodities and farm supplies and permits drivers to record their vehicle operation as "Off Duty" on their logs.
Overview
There are four ways in which the FMCSA allows drivers to record their hours of service when transporting agricultural commodities. Motive offers all four methods:
- Option 1: Do not connect to the Vehicle Gateway and leave all driving events unidentified.
- Option 2: Log the time as normal driving time and annotate the logs to indicate these driving events as an Agriculture Exception.
- Option 3: Utilize Personal Conveyance and annotate those driving events as an Agriculture Exception. Remember to turn on/off the PC after every engine ignition off cycle within a 150-mile radius.
- Option 4: The driver can use Motive’s Agriculture Exception feature, which allows them to switch the vehicle mode to unregulated and record movement as "off-duty" while driving within a 150-air-mile radius of the source of the commodity. This allows drivers to change the duty status only once, and the same duty status remains selected on the logs throughout the entirety of the 150-mile radius.
Agriculture Exception in the Motive Driver App
Motive now offers fleets the capability to activate the agricultural exception for ELD drivers. Once activated, drivers have the following options:
- Drivers can add the agricultural source location in their Driver App.
- Motive proactively notifies drivers to switch their vehicle mode upon entering or exiting the 150-mile radius.
- The driver’s duty status is automatically annotated with "Operating under Ag Exception" when this feature is in use.
On the fleet dashboard, fleet administrators will easily track logs with the applied agricultural exception and unregulated trips to monitor miles recorded under the exception.
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Note: The automatic duty status change functionality is subject to restrictions outlined in the functional specifications, specifically in scenarios detailed in sections 4.4.1.1 and 4.4.1.2. It is important to note that the Agriculture exception within a 150-mile radius is currently excluded from the permissible automatic duty status changes. Motive's implementation adheres strictly to the regulations outlined in section 4.4 (ELD Processing and Calculations) to guarantee compliance for our customers. |
Enabling and disabling the Agriculture Exception for a driver
The Fleet Admin must first enable the agriculture exception for ELD drivers to access the agriculture exception status in the Driver App. Once enabled, this feature allows drivers to set an agricultural source in the app and receive proactive notifications when entering or exiting a 150-mile radius from the source.
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Log in to the Motive Fleet Dashboard and click the Admin icon.
Click Drivers.
Select the driver profiles you want to change the password for and click the three-dot menu.
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Select Edit Account.
Scroll down and find the Time Tracking section. A brief description of the duty status will be shown as you hover over the question mark icon.
Check or uncheck the box for Allow Agriculture Exception to enable or disable it.
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Click Save.
The Driver will now be able to use the Agriculture Exception in the Motive Driver App.
Once activated, this driver will have the following options available:
- Able to set an agricultural source location from the Motive Driver App.
- Able to receive proactive alerts before exiting or entering the 150-air-mile radius.
- Able to switch to unregulated vehicle mode and record duty status as "off duty" inside the radius.
- Logs will be automatically annotated, indicating the use of the exception.
| Note: Any duty status recorded inside the radius is automatically annotated, stating the use of the agriculture exception. |
FAQs
Does the agricultural exemption defined in 49 CFR 395.1(k) of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations apply when a commercial driver operates a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) in Canada?
No, the agricultural exception guidance issued by the FMCSA applies only to ELD drivers in the United States. Once the driver crosses into Canada, Canadian enforcement officials will consider off-duty time while operating under the US Agriculture Exception as driving time to calculate HOS compliance in Canada. However, they will not require that the time operating under the exemption in the US be reflected as driving duty status time when reviewing RODS.
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