A recently discussed topic caught my attention — one that my, let’s call it, common sense struggled to fully accept.
I’m referring to what is commonly known as the Agricultural Exemption — an exemption from using a logbook or other methods of recording a driver’s hours of service within a 150-air-mile radius from the source where unprocessed agricultural commodities are loaded.
To qualify for this exemption, the products must meet several conditions. They must be unprocessed, not preserved, and not packaged or manufactured. Examples include fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers, live trees, Christmas trees, animal feed, livestock, and other agricultural commodities that spoil quickly.
A detailed legal definition can be found in:
Agricultural operations. The provisions of this part (Part 395 – Hours Of Service Of Drivers) shall not apply during planting and harvesting periods, as determined by each State, to drivers transporting
(1) Agricultural commodities from the source of the agricultural commodities to a location within a 150 air-mile radius from the source;(…)
As stated in 49 CFR 395.1(k), the transportation of agricultural commodities is exempt from Hours of Service regulations within a 150-air-mile radius from the source.
It is obvious that a driver hauling beets from a field to a processing facility within a 150-mile straight-line radius qualifies for this exemption, and the driver’s time does not have to be recorded at all. In other words, the driver may operate back and forth continuously.
This raises an important question: What happens when the driver leaves the exempt area?
Let’s say the driver has been hauling beets locally for 12 hours, and the last load is now headed across the country. What then?
According to interpretations published by the FMCSA, once the driver leaves the exempt 150-mile radius, the driver must activate the logbook and begin operating under the standard OTR Hours of Service rules.
Time spent transporting agricultural commodities within the 150-mile radius does not count toward either daily or weekly on-duty limits. One could even say — somewhat sarcastically — that after hauling beets for 12 hours, the driver was technically “resting.”
And this is exactly the part that concerns me.
I’m not asking whether this is safe — the answer seems obvious.
Honestly, I don’t have any more questions.
I’m not a politician.
Dear drivers and carriers,
Based on the above, you do not need to activate your logbook when you are loading, for example, a full truckload of watermelons directly from the field, until you cross the “magic” 150 air-mile radius.
This exemption also applies when deadheading to the loading location within the same 150 air-mile radius.
In your logbook, you may select PERSONAL CONVEYANCE and annotate it as:
“Agricultural commodity operations – 150 air-mile radius exemption.”
Another method indicated by the FMCSA — which I personally would not recommend — is to log out of the ELD and later annotate the resulting unassigned driving time as the agricultural exemption described above.
It is important to remember that the burden of proof rests on the driver to demonstrate that they were authorized to use this exemption.
You may also want to check with your Safety Department whether your company’s ELD system offers an option to activate the Agricultural Commodities Operations Exemption.
This feature can significantly simplify compliance for drivers.