Top 10 FAQs About the ELD Yard Move Special Driving Category

A yard move is considered a special driving category and allows for added flexibility when a driver is in a restricted area referred to as a yard. These moves are considered on-duty (not driving) or line-4 time, and not on-duty driving or “line-3” drive time, if captured by an electronic logging device (ELD).

Like personal conveyance, it is optional if a motor carrier wants to authorize its use. Though it provides an added convenience when applied correctly to a driver’s hours of service, inappropriate use of the category will result in a falsification violation. To avoid unintentional falsification, make sure your drivers are aware of the following FAQs and answers pertaining to yard moves..

FMCSA does not yet have a formal definition for a yard. In the absence of and until there is a formal definition from FMCSA, you likely need to have guidance that helps you avoid compliance problems.

“Driving” time or “Line-3” time is considered time behind the wheel of a commercial motor vehicle that operates on a “highway” per §390.5.

A yard move is considered on-duty (not driving) only if the driver is in an area which is not considered a “highway” as defined below.

“Highway means any road, street, or way, whether on public or private property, open to public travel. “Open to public travel” means that the road section is available, except during scheduled periods, extreme weather or emergency conditions, passable by four-wheel standard passenger cars, and open to the general public for use without restrictive gates, prohibitive signs, or regulation other than restrictions based on size, weight, or class of registration. Toll plazas of public toll roads are not considered restrictive gates.”

Until FMCSA more clearly defines a “yard”, a carrier’s terminal, a customer’s facility, or a repair shop can be considered yards if the facility has signs or gates restricting the public from entering.

Yes, if it is a facility with restricted public access. An example of this would be shuttling trailers from the dock to a trailer parking area within the same yard with restricted public access via gates or signs. Customer lots that do not have prohibitive signs or gates, malls, truck stops, and parking lots the public can access are all places that cannot be considered a yard.

The drive time when a driver is logged in under Yard Move will be recorded on the ELD as on-duty(not driving). To be clear, it will still be visible in the data as driving time, but will count as on duty, not driving time on the driver’s log. The driver must select “Yard Move” prior to entering the special category, and must annotate the ELD record describing the activity.

Yes, Yard Move time counts toward the 14-consecutive hour limit and does not pause the driver’s clock.

It will be indicated on the grid-graph display by using a different style line (dashed, dotted, shaded, etc.), along with the appropriate abbreviation (YM). The detailed log data for the day will also indicate when YM was turned on and off.

The time will be incorrectly captured as Yard Move (on-duty yard time, rather than driving time). This could be considered a false log. To address this, the driver should , as soon as feasible, attach a comment to the log explaining the error. To follow up, someone (the driver or a back-office support person) will have to edit the driver’s log to manually annotate the driving time. The driver, as well as the carrier, cannot change or delete automatically captured driving time.

The officer, investigator, or in-house auditor simply investigates the location data at the time of the Yard Move, either the location description in the log data or the longitude/latitude data, and the driver’s work assignment for the time in question. The auditor can decide if the driver was in a yard at the time yard movement was used, or if the driver was on a roadway or in a public area. If the vehicle was not in a yard or was moving down the road at the time the driver selected Yard Move, the driver falsified the record.

The Encompass® ELD app makes compliance with yard moves easier for your drivers, mechanics, and other employees with exempt driving rulesets and quick ELog annotation entry to document their time. Talk with a compliance specialist about how the Encompass® ELD app can keep you compliant. Learn more.