The Driveaway-Towaway ELD Exemption
A company delivering empty trucks thinks every unit is ELD-exempt. Only the operation the rule describes can leave the ELD off, and the hours of service stay on.
Definition
The vehicle is the freight
ELD only
HOS remains
Not short haul
Different exceptions
Hotshot
Not automatic
Ahmad Qazi
Founder & CEO, O Trucking LLC
Fact-Checked by O Trucking Owner-Operator Desk
Walks carriers through one ELD exception without reprinting the whole catalog
Sources:
Written by Ahmad Qazi, founder of O Trucking LLC, drawing on 9+ years dispatching for owner-operators. Learn more about us.
O TruckingThe Driveaway-Towaway ELD Exemption
Key Takeaways
- Cite 395.8(a)(1)(ii)(A)(2) and (3). Paragraph (a)(1)(iii) is the expired transition that ended December 18, 2017.
- The driven vehicle is part of the shipment, or the transported vehicle is a motor home or RV trailer.
- Hours of service still apply. Paper RODS replace the ELD. They do not replace the clocks.
- The 8-in-30 rule and the short-haul rule are different exemptions.
- If you are outside the definition, the truck needs a registered ELD. Paper is not a preference.
- Do not call ordinary freight a driveaway to avoid the device.
What driveaway-towaway means in the rule
49 CFR 395.8(a)(1)(ii)(A) says a motor carrier may require a driver to record duty status manually, rather than require an ELD, if the driver is operating a commercial motor vehicle in one of four situations. The driveaway situations are two of the four. The second is a driveaway-towaway operation in which the vehicle being driven is part of the shipment being delivered. The third is a driveaway-towaway operation in which the vehicle being transported is a motor home or a recreation vehicle trailer.
The vehicle is the cargo. A driver who saddles up in a new truck and delivers that truck to a dealer, as the shipment, is in the second bullet. A driver transporting a motor home or a recreation-vehicle trailer as the delivered unit is in the third. A driver who uses a tractor to pull a trailer of someone else's freight is in neither bullet, even if the tractor was recently purchased and even if the trip is one way.
Older outlines cite 395.8(a)(1)(iii)(A) for this exemption. On the current section, paragraph (a)(1)(iii) is the instruction that applied until December 18, 2017, when carriers could use either an ELD or a manual grid during the transition. It is not the exception you claim today. Cite (a)(1)(ii)(A).
The ELD exemption, and what it does not exempt
The permission is to record manually in accordance with 395.8, on the grid, in duplicate, with the entries that section requires. It is an exemption from the ELD. It is not an exemption from part 395's driving limits, not an exemption from supporting documents, and not an exemption from producing the record at the roadside.
If you are outside the definition, the truck needs a registered ELD. Do not keep a paper log because the device is inconvenient, because the trip is short, or because the customer called the move a driveaway in an email. The customer's word does not amend the section. A paper log used as a preference, when an ELD is required, is a violation of the ELD requirement. This page will not suggest that preference.
The full catalog of ELD exceptions, including the pre-2000 vehicle and the limited-record threshold, is ELD exemptions. Use it when you need the whole list. Stay here when the only claim is driveaway or towaway.
Paper is the record, not a holiday from the clocks
Manual RODS still show driving, on-duty not driving, sleeper, and off duty. The 11, the 14, and the 60 or 70 are still calculated from that grid.
HOS still applies
A driveaway driver who drives 12 hours has an 11-hour problem on paper. The missing ELD does not erase it. The 14-hour window still starts when the driver comes on duty. Fuel, the inspection of the delivered unit, and waiting for the consignee are still on duty if they meet the definition. The weekly limit still follows whether the carrier operates every day.
Teams delivering units still account for who drove. A blank grid, or a grid that says driveaway so no hours, is a false record if the wheels turned. Complete the grid the same day. 395.8 expects current entries, a signature, miles, unit numbers, and the carrier's name. The specimen grid in the section is the shape, even when the commodity is the truck itself.
Supporting documents still help prove the day. The delivery receipt for the unit, the fuel stop, and the dispatch are how an auditor checks the paper line. Keep them with the six-month retention that applies to records of duty status. Driveaway does not shorten that retention.
The 8-in-30 path is a different exemption
395.8(a)(1)(ii)(A)(1) is the driver who is required to complete a record of duty status on not more than 8 days in any 30-day period. That is a frequency test. It is not driveaway. A driver who delivers vehicles every weekday will blow past 8 days in 30 and cannot use the frequency bullet, even though each day might still fit the driveaway bullet. Use the bullet that is true. Do not borrow the 8-in-30 story for a daily operation.
The short-haul exceptions in 395.1(e) can remove the need for a record of duty status entirely, ELD or paper, when their own conditions are met. That is a third path. It has a radius, a return to the work-reporting location, and time records the carrier keeps. It is taught on the short-haul exemption. A driveaway trip that runs across the country is not a short-haul day. Do not stack nicknames until one of them sounds true.
A vehicle manufactured before model year 2000, as shown in the VIN on the registration, is the fourth bullet. A new truck being delivered is not a pre-2000 vehicle. Do not cite the model-year bullet for a current-year unit.
What an officer expects to see instead of an ELD
The officer expects a current paper record of duty status that meets 395.8, including the previous 7 consecutive days in the driver's possession while on duty. The officer expects the operation to match the bullet you claim. Be ready to show that the unit under the driver is the shipment, or that the unit in tow is a motor home or recreation-vehicle trailer. A bill of lading for pallets does not show that.
If the paper is blank, late, or labeled exempt with no grid, the roadside problem is a missing record plus, if the operation was never driveaway, an ELD violation. Carry the blank grids before the trip, not a plan to reconstruct the week from memory at the scale.
The carrier still collects the paper. Drivers submit records of duty status within 13 days. A driveaway division that never sends the grids to the office will fail an audit that an ELD carrier would have survived by export. Build the same six-month file.
A parts hauler or a hotshot is not automatically in
A loaded trailer of freight is not driveaway. A hotshot pickup and gooseneck hauling equipment, vehicles that are cargo in the ordinary sense, or parts is not driveaway merely because the truck is small. A leased operator running normal freight does not become driveaway because the lease is new or the tractor is being moved toward a better lane. The test is the one in the bullets. Read it against the actual shipment.
If the morning move is a true delivery of the vehicle as the commodity, and the afternoon move is a loaded freight bill, the afternoon move is not covered by the morning's exception. The ELD requirement returns when the exception stops. Do not run the freight half of the day on the driveaway paper and call the whole date exempt.
Pro Tip
Carriers that mix a few true driveaway trips into an otherwise ordinary fleet should assume the ordinary trucks need ELDs. The exception is trip-specific. It is not a company personality. One legal paper day does not convert the rest of the board.
When the delivered unit is dropped and the driver deadheads home in a different tractor that is not itself a shipment, that deadhead is an ordinary operation. Put it on an ELD if no other exception applies. Do not stretch the delivery's paper grid across the ride home in a company truck that hauls freight the rest of the week.
Frequently Asked Questions
We deliver trucks that are themselves the load. Do we need ELDs?
If the vehicle being driven is part of the shipment being delivered, 395.8(a)(1)(ii)(A)(2) allows a manual record instead of an ELD. You still keep hours-of-service records unless a different exception applies.
Is paragraph (a)(1)(iii) the one to cite?
No. On the current text, (a)(1)(iii) is the transition that lasted only until December 18, 2017. The operative exceptions are in (a)(1)(ii)(A).
Can we use paper logs because drivers prefer them?
No. Outside the listed operations, the carrier installs and requires an ELD. Preference is not an exception.
Does driveaway cancel the 11-hour rule?
No. The permission is to record manually. The driving limits still apply, and the paper grid has to show them.
Is a hotshot of machinery driveaway?
Not because the trailer is a gooseneck and the cargo is equipment. Driveaway here is the vehicle as the shipment, or a motor home or RV trailer being transported. Freight on a trailer is freight.
Where is the rest of the ELD exemption list?
On the ELD exemptions guide. This page is only the driveaway-towaway bullets and the warning not to stretch them.
Use paper only when the vehicle is the shipment.
O Trucking does not configure ELDs. After authority is ACTIVE, dispatch is a flat weekly fee.