U.S. Legislative News

NAFA Weighs in on Autonomous Vehicles Legislation

In partnership with the Ad-Hoc Highly Autonomous Vehicles (HAV) Data Access Coalition, NAFA sent a letter on January 25 to Senate Commerce Committee leaders expressing support for Section 15 of S. 1885, the American Vision for Safer Transportation through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies Act (AV START Act).

Section 15 would specifically create an HAV Data Access Advisory Committee to discuss access, use, privacy, and ownership of data generated by HAVs. The Committee would be comprised of a wide cross-section of HAV policy stakeholders to ensure all interests are considered with respect to these critical policy discussions. Further, recommendations from the Section 15 Advisory Committee would be communicated to Congress within 30 months of enactment and inform future efforts by Congress to address these important issues.

 

FMCSA Grants Temporary ELD Exemption to Truck Leasing Group

Federal regulators have granted the Truck Renting and Leasing Association (TRALA) a 90-day electronic logging device (ELD) exemption for rentals not exceeding 30 days. The exemption took effect January 19 and will last until April 19, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said in a January 19 Federal Register announcement.

“This waiver will avoid business disruptions for carriers required to employ short-term rentals, regardless of the reason, and allow businesses renting commercial motor vehicles to continue their work to reconcile the ELD requirement with the needs of their individual customers,” FMCSA said upon issuing the waiver.

The waiver will allow drivers of trucks rented for 30 days or less to use paper logs to record hours of service and allow TRALA members more time to equip trucks with ELDs.

Absent an exemption, the deadline for compliance for motor carriers subject to the FMCSA’s ELD rule was December 18, 2017. For additional compliance information regarding the ELD rule, click here.

 

DOT Seeks Input on Automated Vehicle Activities

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is partnering with a broad coalition including industry, academia, states and local governments, safety advocates, and transportation stakeholders to encourage the safe development, testing and deployment of automated vehicle technology. The Department seeks to support the technology and transportation industry, state and local governments, and other key stakeholders as they consider and design best practices relative to the testing and deployment of automated vehicle technologies.

As part of this effort, DOT has created a webpage outlining its automated vehicles activities in order to provide stakeholders and the general public with a central location to easily view and provide input on specific automated vehicles topics currently being advanced by the agency. Examples of the topics DOT is currently soliciting feedback on include: “Information on Integration of Automated Driving Systems into the Highway Transportation System” and “Removing Regulatory Barriers for Automated Vehicles.” DOT states that it intends to publish additional automated vehicle notices for public comments in the coming weeks, to be posted to the webpage.