Service fleets get the ELD question wrong in both directions. Some pay subscriptions on trucks the hours-of-service rules never touched. Others skip logs on the strength of an exemption they would fail in an audit. The second mistake costs more, because every log you did not keep becomes a violation on the day an auditor reads the exemption differently than you did.
The rules sort this with three checks, taken in order. Pass any one and the ELD mandate does not reach that driver that day. None of them lets you stop keeping records.
Door one: the truck is not a commercial motor vehicle
The federal hours-of-service rules in 49 CFR Part 395 only reach commercial motor vehicles. For interstate property carriers, the line is a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more, truck and trailer counted together. FMCSA's July 2026 technical corrections rule settled a common argument: the rating decides, not the scale. A truck rated at 10,001 pounds is a commercial motor vehicle when it rolls empty.
Texas draws its own line for work that stays inside the state. Under Texas Transportation Code 548.001, an intrastate commercial motor vehicle is one rated over 26,000 pounds, built or used to carry more than 15 passengers, or hauling placarded hazardous materials. A service truck rated at 19,500 pounds that only ever works Texas jobs sits outside Part 395 under Texas rules. Put that same truck on interstate work and the federal 10,001-pound line applies. If any of your work is interstate, plan the whole fleet to the federal line.
What you owe: a written list of every truck's rating, plus the rating of anything it tows. It takes one walk around the yard with a notepad, and it is the first page of every audit you will ever sit through.
Door two: short haul, on a timecard
Most local service fleets over the weight line leave through this door. Under 49 CFR 395.1(e)(1), a driver who stays within 150 air miles of the normal work reporting location, is released within 14 consecutive hours, and gets 10 hours off between shifts does not keep a record of duty status. No logs means no ELD. Texas intrastate rules in 37 TAC 4.12 use the same 150-mile, 14-hour test, with 8 hours off between shifts. Air miles are straight-line distance from the yard, not road miles.
The exception drops the logbook, not the hours limits. Driving and on-duty limits still apply, and the carrier owes a time record for every driver, kept six months: when the driver came on duty, when the driver was released, and total hours on duty that day. The day a driver goes past the radius or the 14 hours, that driver needs a record of duty status for that day. If a driver needs one on more than 8 days in any rolling 30-day period, the ELD mandate applies to that driver.
Drivers of trucks that do not require a CDL have a separate short-haul option under 395.1(e)(2) with a longer allowance on two days a week. Do not use it for CDL drivers. Inspectors are trained to catch that swap.
Door three: the utility service vehicle exemption
This is the widest door and the one most often claimed on a guess. Under 49 CFR 395.1(n), none of Part 395 applies to the driver of a utility service vehicle: no hours limits, no logs, no ELD. Texas carries the same exemption for interstate and intrastate work in 37 TAC 4.12(b)(10).
The definition in 49 CFR 395.2 has three parts, and a truck has to pass all three:
- The work. The vehicle is used in repairing, maintaining, or operating the structures and facilities that deliver public utility service: electric, gas, water, sanitary sewer, telephone, cable television, broadband internet, and cellular.
- The purpose. The vehicle is engaged in activity necessarily related to delivering that service to consumers, including driving to, from, and between work sites. Occasional travel outside the service area counts when a utility emergency, as determined by the utility provider, calls for it.
- The territory. Apart from occasional emergency use, the vehicle operates primarily inside the service area of the utility's subscribers or consumers, whether the utility owns, leases, or rents the truck.
Four details decide most real cases.
Contractors can qualify. The definition does not require the utility to own the truck, and the Power and Communication Contractors Association reported that FMCSA staff confirmed contractor vehicles doing maintenance, emergency, and upgrade work fall under the exemption.
New construction does not. That same PCCA report says FMCSA was clear on it: building new utility facilities is not exempt work. A crew that splits its week between repairing existing lines and building out a new subdivision is exempt during the repair work and covered by Part 395 during the build.
The exemption follows the job, not the company. It applies trip by trip, based on what the vehicle is doing at the time. The same truck can be exempt Monday on a service restoration and need a log Wednesday on a new install.
The customer side of the meter is a different job. The definition is built around the utility's own delivery system. A crew repairing a water main is delivering a public utility service; a crew replacing a water heater inside a house is serving a homeowner. When a job sits near that line, get the classification in writing before the truck rolls.
What no exemption removes
Leaving Part 395 does not mean leaving the safety rules. Driver qualification files and medical cards under Part 391, vehicle inspection and maintenance under Part 396, and drug and alcohol testing for CDL drivers under Part 382 all still apply.
And an exemption is a claim, not a status. If you rely on door three, the file that makes it hold is a job record for each trip: the site, the type of work (repair, maintenance, operating, or new construction), and the utility served. Without it, an auditor sees a truck with no logs.
If you do need an ELD, check the device
When the tests say a driver needs an ELD, the device has to be on FMCSA's registered list. FMCSA removes noncompliant devices from that list regularly, and recent removals have come with a 60-day window to replace them. After the deadline, a driver on a revoked device can be placed out of service. Look up your model on the registry every quarter.
The three-minute sort
- Read every door jamb. Write down each truck's rating and each trailer's rating, and mark which trucks ever touch interstate work.
- Start the timecard for every short-haul driver. On duty, released, total hours. Keep six months.
- If you claim the utility exemption, write it down per job. Site, work type, utility served. That file is the exemption.
Sources: 49 CFR 390.5, 395.1(e) and (n), and 395.2 via eCFR; FMCSA technical corrections final rule, 91 FR 45653 (July 21, 2026); Texas Transportation Code 548.001; 37 Texas Administrative Code 4.12; Power and Communication Contractors Association report on FMCSA's utility service vehicle guidance; J. J. Keller analysis of the utility exemption and new construction; FMCSA registered and revoked ELD lists. Rules reflect the record as of the last-updated date above.
PFI helps Texas service fleets sort which trucks the rules actually reach, then outfit what protects them: GPS and dashcams on every truck, and registry-listed ELDs only where the tests say so. Based in Hidalgo, working the whole Valley. Talk to a real person